VZCZCXRO6484
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #4060 3650332
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 300332Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1055
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0281

UNCLAS BAGHDAD 004060 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ETRD EFIN EINV IZ
SUBJECT: GOI BEGINS WIDENING LABOR RIGHTS IN ANTICIPATION OF NEW 
LABOR CODE 
 
REF: Thome-Phillips e-mail, 12-24-2008 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The GOI is determined to bring its labor code into 
compliance with international standards, but is still struggling to 
move a new ILO-compatible draft bill through the legislative 
process.  The constitutional review is nearly complete, and the 
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA) is hopeful Cabinet will 
approve the draft and send it to the Council of Representatives 
(COR) for enactment in 2009.  The new draft allows for the formation 
of unions in both the public and private sector, as well as 
collective bargaining and expanded rights of association.  Perhaps 
most importantly, MOLSA is already beginning to implement several 
aspects of the new law that expand labor rights, in anticipation of 
its passage.  There is widespread understanding in both the GOI and 
the COR that Saddam's 1987 labor laws -- which the new code will 
supersede -- are unconstitutional and need to be repealed.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
Iraq's Slow Legislative Process 
------------------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) Econoffs met with Deputy Minister of Labor Nouri M. 
Al-Hilfi December 23 to discuss the GOI's new draft labor code and 
the progress his Ministry has made toward seeing it enacted.  MOLSA 
began drafting the new code in 2005, with technical assistance from 
the ILO, Al-Hilfi recalled.  The bill went to the Shura Council (the 
rough equivalent of a European Constitutional Court) in 2007, and 
the Shura has certified the constitutionality of most sections. 
Certain sections were referred back to MOLSA for revision, Al-Hilfi 
reported;  those revisions were made this year and the bill was 
re-submitted to the Shura.  Al-Hilfi had told us in July that he 
hoped the bill would move through the Shura to the Council of 
Ministers (COM) for approval and referral to the COR before the end 
of 2008, and he acknowledged now that he has become somewhat 
frustrated with the bill's slow progress. 
 
¶3. (SBU) That frustration notwithstanding, Al-Hilfi expressed 
satisfaction with the fact that the new code, once enacted, will 
modernize Iraq's labor regulations and occupational safety standards 
and bring them up to international standards.  The new code, which 
benefited greatly from ILO's input, will permit workers to form 
unions in the public sector and will enhance their ability to do so 
in the private sector.  It will permit collective bargaining; remove 
the oppressive restrictions that Saddam's regime had placed on all 
workers' rights of association; and reinstate the right to strike. 
 
Moving Forward in Anticipation of the New Labor Code 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶4. (SBU) These changes will be dramatic, and MOLSA is already 
enacting new policies to expand labor rights in anticipation of the 
new code's passage.  In addition to providing training to MOLSA 
workers in the new code's provisions, Al-Hilfi highlighted the 
following: 
 
 -- Existing law restricts right of association by allowing workers' 
committees only in private sector worksites with more than 50 
employees.  MOLSA has now begun recognizing committees in workplaces 
with fewer than 50. 
 
 -- Until 2008, MOLSA recognized and only dealt with the General 
Federation of Iraqi Workers, as current law stipulates, in the 
private sector.  However, MOLSA has now "registered" and begun a 
dialogue with eleven new independent unions; "recognition" will come 
after the new code passes. 
 
 -- In the public sector, MOLSA has permitted workers in several 
state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and in some sectors of the Ministry 
Qstate-owned enterprises (SOEs) and in some sectors of the Ministry 
of Oil to form workers' committees, a practice that is expanding. 
 
 
 -- Strikes are still not permitted under Iraqi law, but Al-Hilfi 
acknowledged that "events similar to strikes" occurred in 2008 and 
that MOLSA now takes a more forthcoming attitude when unions, 
workers' committees or other groups request it to arbitrate between 
employees and employers.  (The new labor code will give MOLSA the 
legal footing to do so.) 
 
Undoing Saddam's Legacy 
----------------------- 
¶5. (SBU) Al-Hilfi readily acknowledged that Iraq's current labor 
situation is rife with contradictions.  The existing legislative 
framework is draconian, he said, set in place in 1987 by Saddam 
Hussein with the specific purpose of suppressing labor rights.  The 
GOI is committed to passing legislation that supersedes the 
Saddam-era law, and Al-Hilfi expressed confidence that the COR 
recognizes that need and will act quickly once it receives the bill. 
 "For us, the old laws are finished," he added. 
CROCKER