Disciplinary penalties under the State employee discipline law

Disciplinary penalties in Iraq are listed exhaustively in Article 8 of the Law on the Discipline of State and Public Sector Employees No. 14 of 1991. The administration may not invent a penalty outside that table, and it may not stack two penalties for the same act: Article 20 forbids imposing more than one penalty under this law for a single act.

This page sets out the table of penalties, their effects and the authority to impose them. Read it with State employee discipline in Iraq.

What penalties may be imposed?

Article 8 ranks eight penalties. The first four are generally lighter; the next three are heavier; the last is final removal from State service:

• Written reminder (laft al-nazar): a written notice of the breach and a direction to improve official conduct. It delays promotion or increment by three months.
• Warning: a written notice and a caution against future breach. It delays promotion or increment by six months.
• Deduction from salary: withholding the daily rate for up to ten days, by a written order stating the breach. The effect on promotion depends on whether the deduction is five days or less, or more than five days, as the article itself sets out.
• Reprimand: a written notice that the conduct is unsatisfactory, requiring the employee to avoid the breach. It delays promotion or increment by one year.
• Reduction of salary: withholding a percentage of monthly salary not exceeding ten per cent, for a period of not less than six months and not more than two years, with a two-year delay of promotion or increment.
• Lowering of grade: a written order that lowers the employee on the grade scale, or reduces specified increments, according to the service rules that apply, with a route back to the former salary after three years in the cases the text describes.
• Dismissal (fasl): removal from the post for a period fixed in the dismissal decision, in the limits and cases drawn by Article 8, including repetition of certain penalties, or a custodial sentence for an offence not involving moral turpitude, in the detail written there.
• Removal (azl): final removal. Re-employment in State departments is not permitted in the cases the article lists: a serious act making continued service harmful to the public interest; a conviction for a felony arising from the post or committed in an official capacity; or dismissal followed by re-employment and a further act that again warrants dismissal.

Under Article 9, the delay of promotion or increment runs from the date the employee becomes entitled to the promotion or increment. If more than one penalty is imposed during the same grade, the heavier delay is the one that applies.

Who may impose the penalty?

After the 2008 amendment, and subject to Article 10, the minister may impose any of the Article 8 penalties. The head of department or an authorised official may impose a written reminder, a warning, a salary deduction of up to five days, and a reprimand. If the committee recommends a heavier penalty, the file is sent to the minister. Under Article 12 as amended, the minister may also impose certain lighter penalties on a person holding the post of director general or above.

A decision may fail first because the official who signed it had no power, not because of the merits of the charge. The imposing order is therefore read with the order forming the committee and with the recommendation.

How a penalty is read

The questions are: what description did the administration choose? Does it fall under Article 8? Did the official who signed the decision have that power? What is the written effect on pay and promotion? Was Article 20 observed? The answers come from the decision and the text, not from the everyday label given to the penalty.

A written commendation that meets the conditions of Article 21 may cancel a lighter penalty’s effect or shorten a promotion delay.

Grievance and appeal are a later path: Grievance and appeal to the Court of Employees’ Judiciary (Mahkamat Qada’ al-Muwazzafin). Sahb al-yad is not an Article 8 penalty: Suspension from duty.

The effect of a penalty is read from the statutory table and from the decision issued in the particular case. After notification, the path is a grievance and then a challenge before the Court of Employees’ Judiciary, within the time limit the text lays down.

Legal basis and sources

1. Law on the Discipline of State and Public Sector Employees No. 14 of 1991
2. Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 3356, 3/6/1991
3. First Amendment Law No. 5 of 2008
4. Second Amendment Law No. 51 of 2012 (Official Gazette, issue 4250, 10/9/2012)
5. Fifth Amendment to the State Shura Council Law, Law No. 17 of 2013
6. State Council Law No. 71 of 2017

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01The investigative committee and the employee’s rights during the investigationHow an investigative committee is formed under Article 10 of Law No. 14 of 1991, the employee’s rights, and when referral to the courts is recommended.
• 02Grievance against a disciplinary penalty and appeal to the Court of Employees’ JudiciaryA disciplinary penalty is first challenged by grievance, then appealed to the Court of Employees’ Judiciary under Article 15 of Law No. 14 of 1991.
• 03Suspension from duty (sahb al-yad): when it is ordered and how it affects paySuspension from duty (sahb al-yad) under Articles 16 to 19 of Law No. 14 of 1991: when it is ordered, how long it lasts, and half pay.
• 04The Court of Employees’ Judiciary and the Administrative Judiciary CourtThe Court of Employees’ Judiciary hears disciplinary penalty appeals; the Administrative Judiciary Court hears other administrative decisions.
• 05Service disputes: promotion, increment and transferDisputes over promotion, increment and transfer of a State employee: when the matter is a service issue, not a disciplinary penalty.

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

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