Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Workers' Representatives Convention, 1971 (No. 135) - Iraq (Ratification: 1972)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report still does not reply to the previous direct requests for more detailed information on the application of Article 2 of the Convention, and in particular that it does not contain any agreements concluded between the workers' and the employers' organizations to which the Government had referred in its previous report and which would provide members of trade union committees with the facilities necessary for carrying out trade union functions.

In these circumstances, the Committee is bound once again to draw the Government's attention to the terms of Article 2, under which facilities must be afforded in the enterprise to workers' representatives (such as the necessary time off to attend meetings, training courses and trade union seminars, conferences and congresses; access to workplaces when necessary; space to post trade union notices, etc., as indicated in Chapter IV of the Workers' Representatives Recommendation, 1971 (No. 143)).

Noting that under the Trade Union Act (No. 52) of 1987 which establishes the trade union monopoly, the General Confederation of Trade Unions, the central organization designated by law, pays the wages of full-time trade union officials (sections 41 and 27(7)) and not the employer, the Committee draws the Government's attention to the fact that facilities must be afforded in enterprises to workers' representatives to enable them to carry out their functions promptly and efficiently, and in full independence, so that they may defend the economic, social and occupational interests of the workers.

The Committee is bound to request the Government once again to provide with its next report the texts of any agreements concluded between trade unions and employers which afford workers' representatives in enterprises the above facilities, as well as any other relevant information on the practical application of Article 2.