May a dismissed or removed State employee be reinstated?

Whether a dismissed or removed employee may be returned to work is not taken from a wish to return, but from the description of the penalty in the order, and from Article 8 of Law No. 14 of 1991.The distinction between dismissal and removal is on the difference between dismissal and removal.

The wider framework is on State employee discipline in Iraq.

Removal: a ban on re-employment

Article 8, Eighth, provides that removal is permanent exclusion from the post, and that the person may not be re-employed in State or public-sector departments. The original text refers to the “socialist sector”; the name in force after Law No. 5 of 2008 is the public sector. The ban is general across State departments, not limited to the department that issued the decision.

A request to re-employ a removed person is therefore not built on the one-year period or on “distinguished work” in Article 13; that article confines the minister’s cancellation to drawing attention, the warning, deduction from pay and the reprimand. If someone is re-employed despite removal, the re-employment decision itself is open to examination, because the text states the ban in mandatory terms.

If the removal has been challenged, re-employment is not examined before the outcome of the grievance and the claim before the Court of Employees’ Judiciary, and then cassation before the Supreme Administrative Court within thirty days of notification of the judgment, under Article 7(9) of State Shura Council Law No. 65 of 1979 as amended. A judicial setting-aside of the removal is a different matter from an administrative request for return while the removal decision still stands.

Dismissal: a period that ends, without an automatic return

Dismissal, under Article 8, Seventh, is removal for a period fixed in the decision: between one and three years in the cumulative form, or the period of imprisonment in the other form. When the period expires, the time-limited exclusion drawn by the decision comes to an end. The text does not, however, say that the employee returns to the former post on the last day, without a further decision, appointment or resumption order.

Any request after the dismissal period has expired is read together with the conditions for appointment to a public post and with the appointment procedures then in force, and with the absence of a legal bar. Return to the previous grade or post is not a consequence written into the expiry of the dismissal period; any later appointment follows the conditions and procedures then in force. If a dismissed employee is later re-employed and then commits an act again warranting dismissal, the path to removal under Article 8, Eighth (c) opens; re-employment after dismissal is not without later consequence.

What should not be mixed with this question

Discharge during probation under Article 14 of Civil Service Law No. 24 of 1960 is neither dismissal nor removal under the Article 8 table. If such a person is later re-employed, Article 15 of that law places an unconfirmed employee under probation again. Ending service because the employee is deemed to have resigned under Article 37 of the Civil Service Law is another path, explained on absence, leaving the post and resignation and on ending a public employee’s service.

If the employee was suspended from duty at the time of dismissal or removal, nothing of the withheld pay is paid, under Article 19, First. That is an accompanying financial rule. It does not by itself open or close the door to re-employment.

A request is usually reviewed from the dismissal or removal order and proof of notification, whether the decision was challenged and what became of the case, the date the dismissal period ended if the decision was a dismissal, and any later appointment order or refusal. Those papers prevent confusion between a person still within a dismissal period, a person whose period has ended, and a person whose removal decision still stands.

The office reads the description of the penalty in the order and the date a dismissal period ended, if any.

Legal basis and sources

1. Law on the Discipline of State and Public Sector Employees No. 14 of 1991
2. First Amendment Law No. 5 of 2008
3. Civil Service Law No. 24 of 1960 as amended

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01The difference between dismissal and removal under the State employee discipline lawWhat dismissal (fasl) and removal (azl) mean under Iraq’s discipline law, and how they differ in duration and return to public service.
• 02Disciplinary penalties under the State employee discipline lawDisciplinary penalties in Law No. 14 of 1991, from a written reminder to removal (azl), and how each penalty affects promotion.
• 03Conditions for appointing a State employeeConditions for a first appointment to a government post under Article 7 of the Civil Service Law: nationality, age, a medical examination, good conduct
• 04Grievance 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.
• 05The 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.

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

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