Strike under Iraqi labour legislation in force

The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, sets out the conditions for a strike in the private sector as drawn by Labour Law No. 37 of 2015. The source is the text published in the Official Gazette, issue 4386, of 9/11/2015, articles 161 to 164, together with the right to strike in article 42. A strike under this Law is tied to the end of the procedures for resolving a future-interests dispute without agreement. It is not a substitute for referring a dispute over existing rights to the Department of Employment and Loans.

When is the way open to a strike, and what notice is required?

Article 42 includes among the worker’s rights a strike in accordance with this Law. If the means of dealing with a future-interests dispute have been exhausted without the parties meeting in an agreement, the union organisation — or those the workers have elected as representatives where there is no union in the project — may take the path of a peaceful strike in defence of the members’ professional, economic, and social interests, under article 162, first. Anyone who intends to do so must address written notice to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and to the other side, at least a full week before the day fixed for the strike. The notice is to state the reasons for the step and the period of time set for it.

A strike is not to be used as a means of reopening a collective agreement that is still in force, or of changing its terms. It must remain peaceful. A union that is a party to the dispute may not declare a strike before the means of resolving the dispute, as the Law draws them, have come to an end. Workers and their organisations may not strike in a project if stopping work there would put the life, safety, or public health of all or some of the population at risk. The Ministry must consult the most representative workers’ and employers’ organisations to identify the essential services referred to in article 161. Those on strike may not impede freedom of work, or prevent — by act, threat, violence, or assault, or by occupying work sites or damaging what is there — other workers, or the employer or the employer’s representative, from reaching the site and performing their usual work.

A future-interests dispute is resolved by arbitration in the cases listed in article 161, including agreement of the parties, a request by the workers’ organisation in negotiations for a first collective agreement, and a dispute concerning a service whose interruption would threaten life, safety, or public health. If the parties at workplaces of those essential services do not reach agreement, the Ministry may refer the dispute to the Court of Labor to decide it within the time-limits the article draws: a hearing date within forty-eight hours of the request being received, a decision within seven days of the end of that period, cassation before the Court of Cassation within fifteen days, and a decision by the Court of Cassation within fifteen days, which is final. Mediation and the arbitration board that precede that path are in How is a labour dispute taken to the Department before the Court of Labor?, and collective bargaining is in Unions, collective bargaining, and collective agreements.

The effect of a strike on the contract, and what the Ministry may do during it

The employment relationship between the employer and the workers, or those who stand in for them, remains in being throughout the period of the strike, under article 163. Workers may not be penalised for exercising a strike carried out in accordance with this Law, or for calling for it. They may not be replaced with others, whether the replacement is permanent or temporary. During the stages of dealing with the dispute, no application may be made to close the project in whole or in part, or to reduce its size or activity. The strike holds the contract in suspense for as long as it lasts, without dissolving it.

The Ministry may, during the strike, convene a meeting in the presence of the parties with a view to resolving the dispute. The text attaches a fine to failure to attend that meeting. The holding of the meeting, or the invitation to it, does not prevent workers and their union organisations from continuing the strike, under article 164.

The office reads these conditions from Baghdad. A strike that does not satisfy the notice, or that takes place in a project whose stoppage would threaten life, safety, or public health, or that aims to amend a collective agreement in force, falls outside the framework article 162 draws.

Legal basis and sources

1. Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386 of 9/11/2015) — Articles 42 and 161–164

Frequently asked questions

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

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