International Workers’ Day: Kurdistan workers demand law amendment for better rights

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Workers in the autonomous Kurdistan Region on Wednesday marked International Workers’ Day (May Day), and called for the amendment of an outdated law to secure more rights in the regional parliament.

The Kurdistan Region continues to enact a law issued in 1986 that requires an amendment or a new law which would be compatible with today’s situation, Sabir Osman, head of the Kurdistan Workers Syndicate office in Erbil, told Kurdistan 24.

He mentioned that they had already drafted an amendment and handed it over to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Council of Ministers, but it is yet to be approved and passed to the Kurdistan Parliament.

Osman noted that as an alternative to the amendment draft, they asked the KRG and Kurdistan Parliament to apply an Iraqi law issued in 2015 where the rights of workers are better secured.

International Workers’ Day was marked across cities in the Kurdistan Region with workers pouring into the streets holding signs with different slogans, demanding better rights for the working-class who play a key role in building the region’s infrastructure.

“On the occasion of May 1, International Workers’ Day, we extend our congratulations to the workers of Kurdistan, Iraq, and the world. We wish them a happy life far from persecution, and we thank them for their efforts,” Masoud Barzani, the President of the leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the former President of the Kurdistan Region, said in a statement.

On the same day, a 28-year-old Kurd from Koya, Pers Safeen Osman, died while performing construction work with his father when an old wall collapsed on him, local police told Kurdistan 24. The father sustained injuries as well.

Osman owned a local private generator where he provided electricity to a neighborhood in Koya, according to police.

According to data Kurdistan 24 obtained from the KRG’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, there are 78,560 registered workers in the Kurdistan Region. Among them, 71,841 are local workers, and the other 6,719 are from abroad.

Arif Hito, the Director-General of Labor and Social Affairs at the ministry, told Kurdistan 24 they had decreased the number of foreign workers in the Kurdistan Region by 80 percent since 2013.

“We have tried to create more job opportunities for local workers, especially in large construction projects that do not require as much skill,” Hito said.

The rate of unemployment is below 11 percent in the Kurdistan Region, according to the Kurdish official.

Hito added that over the past four years, 52 workers had been injured while working, and 25 others died.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Additional reporting by Renas Ali)