Transfer, secondment, or a change of a worker’s workplace
The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, addresses when an employer may change a worker’s workplace or the type of duties within an existing employment relationship, and what Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 leaves unsaid about secondment or posting. The source is the text published in the Official Gazette, issue 4386, of 9/11/2015, especially articles 37, 41, 49, and 72. The fate of contracts when a project is sold or merged is explained in The fate of workers’ contracts on a change of ownership or a merger.
Organising the project, and the limit of the written contract
The employer enjoys, under article 41, first, rights including organising the activity of the project, assigning workers’ tasks and responsibilities, taking the decisions needed about the work, and supervising the progress of the work and the workers’ performance of the tasks entrusted to them according to the employment contract. The employer is bound, under the second paragraph, to respect and apply the terms of the employment contract, collective agreements, and the provisions of this Law, to provide the means of performing the work, to pay the wage, to provide healthy conditions and the necessary precautions, and to treat equally workers in the same occupation and the same working conditions, among other duties the article lists.
Where there is a written contract, it must contain at a minimum, under article 37, the nature and type of the work, its duration and starting date, the hours of work and how they are divided, and the employer’s name and the type of project and its address. The nature and type of the work form part of the minimum particulars. Changing them after the contract is concluded is read with the right to organise in article 41 and with the duty to respect the terms of the contract in the second paragraph of the same article. What counts as a material change is read from what the contract states and from what goes with the agreed type of work, since the text does not set a numerical threshold in general terms. The measure is what was written in the contract and what goes with the agreed type of work.
If work stops wholly or in part as a result of exceptional circumstances or force majeure, the employer must pay the workers’ wages for the period of the stoppage for up to thirty days, and may assign the worker similar other work or unpaid overtime as compensation for the time lost, provided that unpaid overtime does not exceed two hours a day and thirty days in the year, under article 72. That assignment of similar work is a special rule for a stoppage. It is not a general rule for a permanent transfer to different work.
What does the Law not provide under the heading of secondment or posting?
The published text of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 does not contain a separate heading on “secondment” or “posting” that regulates lending a worker to another body, or posting the worker there for a fixed period, in the way known in the service of a public official. The text’s silence on that heading means that the rules of a public official on secondment or posting are not carried into the private sector without a text. If the parties agree in writing that the work will be performed for a period at another body while the employment relationship with the original employer remains, that is read from their agreement, from the continuation of subordination and wages, and from the duty to respect the contract in article 41, not from a separate article under that name.
If the employer breaches one of the obligations laid down in this Law, in the internal work rules, or in the individual employment contract, the worker may end the contract unilaterally without prior notice, under article 49, and may claim compensation as that article refers. A change that departs from the agreed nature of the work, or from a place that was not agreed to be changed, and that amounts to a breach of the contract or of the internal rules, is read in that place. Termination by the employer on the grounds in article 43 is a different path, in Ending an employment contract. Internal rules, where they are required, may state hours of work and, within the Law, matters of place, and are set out in The establishment’s internal regulations.
The office reads this framework from Baghdad. The file may ask: what did the contract state about the nature of the work and its place? Is the change a day-to-day organisation of the work, or a material amendment of the agreement? Is there a written agreement on temporary performance at another body?
Legal basis and sources
Frequently asked questions
May the employer change a worker’s tasks?
Article 41 gives the employer the assignment of tasks and responsibilities and the organisation of the project’s activity, and at the same time binds the employer to respect the terms of the employment contract. A change is measured against what was written in the contract and against that duty of respect, not against one limb without the other.
Does the Labour Law regulate secondment or posting of a worker to another body?
The published text does not contain a separate heading under that name. Any temporary performance at another body while the employment relationship remains is read from the written agreement and from articles 37 and 41, not from a secondment scheme carried over from the service of a public official.
What if the change breaches the contract?
Article 49 allows the worker to end the contract unilaterally without notice if the employer breaches one of the obligations laid down in the Law, in the internal work rules, or in the individual employment contract, and to claim compensation as the article refers.
Related topics and articles
- 01When a business is sold, merged or leased: who still owes the workers?What happens to workers’ contracts and accrued rights when a project in Iraq is sold, merged, leased or passed to heirs, and how liability is shared between the new owner and the previous one.
- 02When 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.
- 03The establishment’s internal regulations: when they are required and what they must containThe duty of an employer who regularly employs ten or more workers to prepare internal rules under article 136, their contents, approval, and posting.
- 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.