Workers in Iraq: Continued "marginalization" and calls to "ratify" the retirement and social securit

by **Rocky** Today at 4:10 am

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Workers in Iraq: Continued "marginalization" and calls to "ratify" the retirement and social securit

by Rocky Today at 4:10 am

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Wednesday,06-11-2024,PM 1:04
Karar Al-Asadi

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The Iraqi worker is living his “worst period” in the absence of a law to protect him and guarantee his rights, especially since the number of workers in Iraq is 15 million workers, and they are still suffering from competition from foreign workers and arbitrary termination of service, while the retirement and social security law that includes them has been on the shelves of the House of Representatives without being approved for years.
Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ahmed Al-Asadi revealed that the State Shura Council had not ratified the Retirement and Social Security Law, despite a full year having passed since its enactment, calling for its ratification to be expedited.
Iraqi Labor Law No. 37 of 2015 regulates the relationship between employers and workers, and defines their rights and obligations, including wages, working hours, leave entitlements, and working conditions. It also sets out rules and provisions to support specific groups such as women in the workplace.
Al-Asadi said, via an electronic speech during the launch of the social security campaign, that “the retirement and labor security law provides a real and appropriate opportunity for all workers in the private sector and gives them equal rights to workers in the public sector, and there was no guarantee for the worker in the previous law,” indicating that “the legislation of Law No. 18 of 2023 gives workers the right to register in the Social Security Retirement Department for Workers.”
He added that “the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is making great efforts to announce this important law and all the supporting formations supporting the ministry,” noting that “a full year has passed since the legislation of the workers’ retirement law and we are still waiting for the approval of the instructions from the State Shura Council, and it is necessary to expedite the approval and announcement of the instructions of the law that was enacted by the House of Representatives.”
The minister stated that “the law is considered comprehensive, and perhaps the best law in the region,” stressing that “the retirement and employment insurance law is one of the most important laws enacted in the Iraqi state after 2003, and it supports the private sector and gives workers great freedom.”
He pointed out that “the law gives maternity and workers’ rights and sets a retirement ceiling for workers in the private sector, especially for those who have 15 years of service and are over 50 years old,” stressing that “the Ministry of Labor is serious about working according to the law and publishing more data, information and details about the law so that they are known and understood by all workers in the private sector.”
The percentage of workers in the government sector in Iraq is 37 percent, as it is considered the sector that puts the greatest pressure on the state’s general budget, which is entirely spent on salaries for employees, without any real production that matches these high expenses as a result of not creating an investment environment that contributes to encouraging the private sector and providing job opportunities through it, which increases the pressure on the public sector.
But in the private sector, things seem different, as workers there complain about increased working hours and lack of paid leave, and the feeling of being threatened with arbitrary dismissal remains a concern that haunts workers, despite the existence of a labor law that guarantees workers some rights.
The labor market in Iraq provides an unprecedented opportunity for foreign workers, whether from Southeast Asian countries or some Middle Eastern countries that suffer from security disturbances, which has led to the influx of workers from these countries illegally and their transformation into an unprecedented phenomenon. Estimates indicate that licensed workers amount to 51 thousand foreign workers, while illegal workers amount to several times this number, reaching hundreds of thousands.
On September 16, the Prime Minister’s Advisor for Economic and Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, revealed that the value of annual remittances from foreign workers is estimated at no less than two billion dollars annually, indicating that 85% of them are unskilled and useless workers.
Bangladeshis are the largest foreign worker in Iraq, numbering in the tens of thousands, at a time when the unemployment rate in the country exceeds 15 percent, in addition to a major recession and scarcity of job opportunities in the private sector.
The average salary of a foreign worker in Iraq is $700, while the minimum salary for a local worker is $270, according to the head of the Strategic Center for Human Rights, who pointed out that the unemployment rate for workers in Iraq compared to unregistered foreign workers reached 26 percent.
In September 2023, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced that the retirement and social security law for private sector workers would come into effect, after the Iraqi parliament voted on it in May 2023, in a step that the government described as essential within the economic reforms it promised, and to guarantee the rights of workers in this sector, but nothing was implemented on the ground.
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Workers in Iraq: Continued "marginalization" and calls to "ratify" the retirement and social securit

Workers in Iraq: Continued "marginalization" and calls to "ratify" the retirement and social securit

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