Iraq's President and Federal Court Chief Call for Legal Resolution to Kurdistan Region Salary Crisis
According to the presidency’s statement, President Rashid reiterated the urgency of reaching a conclusive legal solution to the issue, while Judge Aboud affirmed that the salary problem “must be addressed in line with the law.”
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Iraq’s President Latif Rashid and the head of the Federal Supreme Court, Judge Jassim Mohammed Aboud, have stressed the need to resolve the Kurdistan Region’s public employee salary crisis in accordance with the constitution, laws, and federal court rulings, according to a statement from the Iraqi Presidency.
The call was made during a meeting held on Sunday, in Baghdad, where President Rashid welcomed Judge Aboud for discussions on critical national issues, foremost among them the delayed salary payments to civil servants in the Kurdistan Region.
According to the presidency’s statement, President Rashid reiterated the urgency of reaching a conclusive legal solution to the issue, while Judge Aboud affirmed that the salary problem “must be addressed in line with the law.”
The meeting comes amid growing tensions between Erbil and Baghdad, as the Iraqi Ministry of Finance has yet to release the salaries for the month of May 2025 to public sector employees in the Kurdistan Region.
On Thursday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) issued a statement condemning what it described as continuous constitutional and legal violations by the federal government. The KRG accused Baghdad of withholding the Region’s budget and salaries for over 11 years, despite a Federal Court ruling mandating the timely and unconditional disbursement of civil servant pay.
“The federal government has created monthly pretexts to delay salary payments, even though the Federal Court has ordered that the salaries be paid without any hindrance,” the KRG stated.
The KRG emphasized its commitment to fulfilling its obligations, including adopting a biometric payroll system, integrating the national civil service law, implementing a banking system for salary disbursements, and cooperating with the federal government to permanently formalize its employee roster. Despite these efforts, the KRG said the federal government has consistently delayed payments and has never disbursed all 12 months of salaries in a given year.
In what the KRG labeled a continuation of discriminatory and punitive measures, the Iraqi Ministry of Finance decided not to transfer the salaries for the remaining eight months of 2025. Of the 13 trillion Iraqi dinars allocated to the Kurdistan Region in the 2025 budget, only 4 billion dinars have been disbursed so far, the statement added.
