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ITF challenges Iraqi government on docker redundancies
4 July 2008
The ITF is demanding that plans to make port workers in Basra redundant if they have worked with the company for more than 25 years be dropped. The plans, it has been claimed, are in breach of the law.
Responding to reports from the ITF-affiliated Workers’ Union and Affiliation of Iraqi Ports Company, based in Basra, ITF General Secretary David Cockroft wrote to Iraqi Prime Minister Jawad Al-Maliki on 2 July, reminding him that possible redundancies planned by the Ministry of Transport would be illegal. It is understood that the ministry has called for the establishment of a committee to look into making workers with more than 25 years of service redundant.
A pension law decree – 27/2006 – allowed for redundancy where a worker had proven to be inefficient or if there were too many workers for a particular job. However, the law has since been amended, and the “common retirement law” cancelled.
Cockroft explained that the change of the law would mean that any redundancies on the basis of the decree would be illegal. “The ITF,” he said, “in support of its affiliate, asks you to ensure that no such decisions are taken which would breach workers rights.”
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