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Seafarers' Annual Leave with Pay Convention, 1976 (No. 146) - Iraq (RATIFICATION: 1985)

Articles 3 to 12 of the Convention. Seafarers’ entitlement to annual holidays with pay. The Committee recalls its previous comments in which it requested the Government to clarify whether the annual paid leave of seafarers employed on privately owned vessels was regulated by the Labour Code while the paid annual leave of seafarers employed on board publicly owned vessels was regulated by Maritime Civil Service Act No. 201 of 1975. Moreover, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the absence of specific legal provisions implementing numerous requirements of the Convention. The Committee notes that in its last report the Government does not reply to any of the points that the Committee has been raising for a number of years. The Committee is therefore obliged to recall that: (i) insofar as seafarers on board private-owned vessels are concerned, the Labour Code does not appear to give effect to Articles 3 (30-day annual leave), 6 (public holidays and periods of incapacity for work not to be counted as annual leave), 8 (division of leave into parts and accumulation of leave), and 10 (free transportation to place of engagement or recruitment) of the Convention; and (ii) insofar as seafarers employed on publicly owned vessels are concerned, the Maritime Civil Service Act does not appear to contain any provisions implementing Articles 4 (proportionate leave if length of service insufficient for full entitlement), 6 (justified absence from work and temporary shore leave not to be counted in the minimum annual leave), 8 (annual leave in principle consisting of an uninterrupted period), 10 (return to the place of engagement or recruitment at the employer’s cost), and 11 (prohibition of agreement to relinquish right to annual leave) of the Convention. Noting the Government’s ongoing efforts to rebuild the country’s maritime transportation system and infrastructure, the Committee requests once again the Government to take appropriate action in order to bring the national legislation into full conformity with the requirements of the Convention.

In addition, the Committee takes this opportunity to recall that the main provisions of this Convention have been incorporated in Regulation 2.4 and the corresponding Code of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), and therefore ensuring compliance with Convention No. 146 would facilitate the implementation of the respective provisions of the MLC, 2006. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any further developments regarding the process of early ratification and effective implementation of the MLC, 2006.