GOI BEGINS WIDENING LABOR RIGHTS IN ANTICIPATION OF NEW

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and the COR that Saddam's 1987 labor laws -- which the new code will supersede -- are unconstitutional and need to be repealed.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