When is the person working for you a “worker” in law?
Many of the disputes that reach the Law Office of Ali Barakat in Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, open with one sentence from the business owner: “He is not on our staff, he just collaborates with us.” The other side answers: “I have been coming in every day for two years.” What settles the matter is not the label the parties chose but the way the work was actually done. So this page starts with the test we apply to a file, then walks through the situations where the picture blurs, and ends with the groups the legislature placed outside Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 altogether.
The working test: three questions first
Question one: is this a human being doing the work personally? Article 1 speaks of a natural person, man or woman. A company that contracts to supply a service is not a “worker”, even if the person carrying out the service is on that company’s payroll. The relationship there is between two businesses, and the contractor’s own staff remain workers of their own employer.
Question two: who holds the reins while the work is being done? This is the heart of it. The Law ties worker status to work done under the employer’s direction, supervision and management. In a file we ask: who sets the hours? Who hands out the daily tasks? Who calls the person to account for being late? Does the person use the business’s tools and premises? If most answers point to the business owner, subordination is present.
Question three: is there something given in return? Article 1 does not demand any particular form of pay. It may be cash or in kind, and allowances and overtime pay are counted with it. The effort itself may be mental or physical, ongoing or for a fixed period, seasonal, or for part of the day.
When all three answers are yes, the starting point is that the person is a worker, and the absence of a written contract does not change that. The Law accepts an oral or implied agreement just as it accepts a written one, and it brings in someone on probation or in training as long as the elements of the relationship are there.
Cases where the picture blurs
The accountant who comes in two days a week. Few days do not cancel the status. If he attends at times the business fixes, works on its books on its instructions and is paid monthly, he is a part-time worker. That arrangement is covered on the page on part-time and remote work.
The freelance designer who delivers a project. If she is engaged for a defined result, chooses her own method, time and place, and is checked only on delivery, the arrangement is closer to a contract for work (muqawala). The Civil Code defines that contract as an undertaking to make a thing or perform a piece of work for a return (art. 864), and marks the line with an employment contract by the other party’s right to direct and manage the effort during performance, or at least to supervise it (art. 900).
The “collaborator” who became a permanent employee. Someone may start on a single task, then be asked to attend daily, be given a company email address and be put on the duty rota. We then look at what the relationship has become, not at how it began. Its character can change over time.
The trainee. A person who joins a vocational training programme under a written contract under articles 25 to 28 has a status of their own that differs from a worker’s. The difference is set out on the page on the training contract.
Who the legislature left out
The rule is that the Law extends to all workers inside Iraq and to those dealt with as workers (art. 3, first paragraph). The second paragraph of the same article excludes two groups: state employees appointed under the Civil Service Law or a special statute, and members of the armed forces, police and internal security. A public servant in conflict with his directorate does not go to the Labour Court. He follows the route laid down by the public service laws and the administrative judiciary.
A non-Iraqi working in Iraq under an employer’s management for a wage is inside the Law’s protection, but his employment depends on a work permit from the Ministry obtained before he starts (arts. 30 and 31). Someone registered with the Workers’ Pension and Social Security Fund carries an added description, the “insured worker”. That description sits on top of worker status and does not replace it.
Why this matters before any dispute
Every right the Labour Law creates, from leave to notice before termination to end-of-service benefit, depends on worker status being established first. An employer who writes a “services agreement” for someone treated like staff may find the court calling that person a worker. A truly independent professional may lose a long time by filing before the Labour Court instead of the civil court. Our advice is to write the agreement so that it matches reality, and to keep evidence of how the work was done: assignment messages, attendance records and transfer statements. The full map of the Law is on the page on Labour Law No. 37 of 2015.
Legal basis and sources
- Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386 of 9/11/2015) — Articles 1, 3, 25–28, 30 and 31
- Civil Code No. 40 of 1951 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 3015 of 8/9/1951) — Articles 864 and 900
Frequently asked questions
We never signed a contract. Am I a worker?
The lack of paper does not block the status. It is enough to show that you work under the employer’s management and supervision in return for pay, and that can be shown through witnesses, messages and payment records.
Our contract is headed “consultancy agreement”. Does that stop the Labour Law from applying?
Not if subordination exists in fact. The court looks at who directs and manages the work while it is being done. If that is the other party, the relationship is employment whatever the heading.
I work in a government office on a contract. Am I under the Labour Law?
The exclusion in article 3 covers an employee appointed under the Civil Service Law or a special statute. The position of a contractor engaged by a public body is read from the contract itself and the law or decision under which it was made, so each file is examined on its own.
Related topics and articles
- 01Trainee, worker on probation, or employee? Three relationships with similar namesHow to tell apart a vocational training programme under a written contract, probation inside an employment contract, and paid in-house “training”, and what follows from each under Iraq’s Labour Law.
- 02Fewer hours or working away from the office: how to write the agreementHow a part-time employment contract is drafted in Iraq within the weekly hours band, and how home-based or flexible work is arranged in a written contract while the worker’s rights stay intact.
- 03Labour Law No. 37 of 2015: its chapters and the questions they raiseAn educational reading of the chapters of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015: the contract, wages, termination and the courts, not an article-by-article text.
- 04End-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.
- 05Which 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.