Iraq – Trade unions in Iraq are looking to find a new legislation for union organizing, in order to grant public sector employees the right to belong to a trade union, The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will adopt a
draft of the project, indicating that it will be in accordance with international standards.
The conference “rights and freedoms of trade union in Iraq “was held by several federations and trade unions in Iraq .
A member of the Iraqi General Federation of Trade union, Adnan al-Saffar said that the conference discussed the new draft law to regulate the trade union, the rights and freedoms of association and rejected the current law, he added that the draft law, was formulated in coordination between the unions and committees of Parliament and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs .
Al- Saffar noted that the new draft law confirms the involvement of public sector workers in unions and gives workers the right to form unions on the basis of international labour organization Conventions, especially Convention No. 87 of 1948, he also stated that the conference witnessed the refusal of the current trade union law No. 52 Act of 1987 issued by the former regime.
Al- Saffar said that the current law is unfair and does not represent the trade union movements and has a lot of loopholes; it states in the first article of the third paragraph that whoever shall belong to a union should believe in the principles of 17 to 30 July revolution and he further said the current law does not allow the 650 thousand workers in the government sector to participate in trade union organizations, even though they make up 75 percent of the work force in Iraq.
Chairman of the Iraqi General Federation of Trade union, Saied Ne’ama stressed that the former regime deprived many of workers from establishing a union or federation of their own, because they were considered governmental institutions and were completely subject to the control of the authority.
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Abdul Karim Abdullah said that the ministry adopts the draft law of the trade union organization to be fit with the Constitution and international human rights conventions to be acceptable to everyone in preparation for submission to the Cabinet for approval.
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