Resignation under the Labour Law

When someone working for a private company in Baghdad, or on an oilfield project in Basra, decides to move on, the first questions are practical ones. How much warning must be given? What happens if the worker walks out early? Which entitlements survive the departure? Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, published in issue 4386 of the Iraqi Official Gazette on 9 November 2015, answers these in the branch of Chapter Six that deals with the ending of employment contracts. This page treats resignation as a way the contract ends at the worker's own initiative, and separates it from walking out because of the employer's breach and from dismissal by the employer. Other grounds of ending are covered in Ending an employment contract.

The advance-notice requirement

Sub-paragraph (h) of article 43, first, lists the worker's resignation among the events that bring the contract to an end, subject to a single condition: the worker must let the employer know no fewer than thirty days ahead of the intended end date. A worker who departs without giving that warning, or who stops coming in before the period fixed in the contract has run, owes the employer a sum matching the wages for the whole notice period or for the days still left of it.

The calculation is arithmetical. The base is what the worker earns per day or per month, and the number of unserved notice days is the multiplier. In practice, the notice should be handed over in writing and dated, with the worker keeping a copy signed as received, or a sent message to the company's official email address, because the thirty days start from receipt. Where the contract fixes its own notice period, the text refers to that period when working out the unserved portion.

How resignation differs from other endings

Resignation is a one-sided act by the worker, and its effect is not made conditional on the other party's consent. That sets it apart from:

• a written agreement between both sides to end the contract, listed on its own in sub-paragraph (e) of the same paragraph;
• the lapse of a fixed term, or completion of the specific task for which the contract was made, in sub-paragraphs (f) and (g);
• termination decided by the employer in the situations listed in article 43, second, such as prolonged illness, incapacity, reaching retirement age, or downsizing approved by the Minister. In those cases the warning runs the other way: article 44 requires the employer to give written notice of no fewer than thirty days, or else to pay the worker in lieu of that warning.

The distinction matters because the label attached to the facts decides who pays whom and whether the gratuity is owed.

Retracting or accepting a resignation

Articles 43 to 48 contain no dedicated route for a worker who wants to take back a resignation notice after handing it in, and they do not make resignation depend on the employer's express approval. If both sides later decide to carry on, that is shown by their mutual consent and by conduct: the worker continues to turn up, and the employer continues to accept the work and pay for it. It is sensible to record such a reversal in a short letter signed by both, so that there is no later argument about when the relationship ended.

Entitlements after resigning

Article 45 grants a departing worker a gratuity worth a fortnight's pay for each year spent working for the employer. The provision withholds it only in listed situations: an irrevocable court sentence of more than one year in prison (article 43, first, (b)); misconduct against contractual duties; using a false identity or forged papers; and a serious fault that caused heavy damage, as found by an irrevocable judgment (article 43, second, (e), (f) and (h)). Resignation is not on that list, so the gratuity is not lost simply because the worker chose to leave. The calculation is explained in End-of-service entitlements.

Article 60 requires a closing reckoning of wages from the next day onward after the contract ends, and where the worker is the one who ended it, the outstanding wages are payable no later than seven days after departure. Article 41 adds the employer's end-of-contract duties: returning documents the worker handed over, giving a service certificate showing when the job began and ended and the kind of work done, and providing a clearance certificate once the worker has met their own obligations, failing which the worker may turn to the labour judiciary. See Clearance between the worker and the employer.

Leaving because of the employer's breach

Resignation is different from the situation governed by article 49, which allows the worker to end the contract at once, with no notice period, in any of three circumstances:

• the employer fails to honour a duty imposed by the Law, the establishment's internal rules, or the individual contract;
• the employer commits a felony or misdemeanour directed at the worker or at one of their relatives, on the job or off it;
• there is a real hazard to the health or physical safety of the worker that the employer knows about and does nothing to remove.

In those cases the worker does not owe the notice-period sum. Instead, the worker may claim compensation before the Termination of Service Committee or before the court on the basis set in article 48, second, (b). A worker who leaves because wages have gone unpaid or because a site is unsafe should therefore record the reason and state it in the leaving letter, so that the departure is not treated as an ordinary resignation.

The Law Office of Ali Barakat in al-Yarmouk, Baghdad, reviews resignation and walk-out letters and the entitlements that follow from them.

Legal basis and sources

1. Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386 of 9/11/2015) — Articles 41, 43–49 and 60

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01When a job ends in Iraq: who ends it, on what ground, and what followsA practical map of ending a private-sector employment contract in Iraq: what ends it automatically, when the employer or the worker may end it, barred grounds, and the challenge deadline.
• 02End-of-service entitlements under Labour Law No. 37 of 2015The end-of-service gratuity under Labour Law 37/2015: the two-week formula, the statutory exceptions, and how it differs from benefits under Law 18/2023.
• 03Clearance and a release between the worker and the employerThe clearance document at the end of the contract under article 41, and limits on waiving statutory rights under articles 14 and 61; not a tax clearance.
• 04Which labour and social-security rules apply in the governorates and in the Kurdistan Region?The reach of Labour Law 37/2015 and Law 18/2023 in the governorates not organised in a region, and how work is organised in the Kurdistan Region.
• 05What is reviewed in the employment contract, a non-Iraqi's work permit, and social-security enrolment?What is reviewed in an employment file: the written contract, a non-Iraqi's work permit, and social-security enrolment,.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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