Technical Safety and Occupational Health

First topic: Generalities

Article 85: For the country’s protection of human and material resources, all workplaces must  observe the instructions prepared by the Supreme Council on Technical Safety (for the safety of technology) and the Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training (to prevent professional illnesses and secure the worker’s health and the work environment’s healthiness) for all workplaces, employers, workers, and apprentices.

Note: Home workplaces are also included in this chapter’s provisions and it is obligatory to observe technical and sanitary principles on the job.

Article 86: The Supreme Council for Technical Safety is responsible for preparing the rules and bylaws for technical protection. It is to be composed of the following members:

1)      The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs or an aide of his, who will be the head of the council.

2)      An aide to the Ministry of Industries.

3)      An aide to the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

4)      An aide to the Ministry of Agriculture.

5)      An aide to the Ministry of Oil.

6)      An aide to the Ministry of Mines and Metals.

7)      An aide to the Ministry of the Jihad for Reconstruction.

8)      The president of the Ministry for Environmental Protection.

9)      Two experienced university professors in technical fields.

10)    Two industrial managers.

11)    Two workers’ representatives.

12)    The General Manager of Labor Inspection of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, who will be the secretary of the council.

Note 1: The council’s suggestions are to be confirmed by the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, and the council, when necessary, may, in order to prepare a plan for bylaws connected with the technical safety of the workers in the work environment and to perform the rest of the duties related to the council, form special committees composed of experts.

Note 2: The council’s internal bylaws will be drafted by the Supreme Council for Technical Safety and confirmed by the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs.

Note 3: Choosing university professors, workers’ representatives, and industrial managers’ representatives shall be done in accordance with a schedule which will be drafted by the Supreme Council for Technical Protection and confirmed by the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs.

Article 87: Actual and legal persons who wish to form a new workplace or expand existing workplaces are obliged to first present to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs their work program, architectural maps, and plans they are considering in order to foresee matters of technical safety and the workplace sanitation in order to receive its views and obtain confirmation. This ministry is obliged to announce its views within a space of one month. Utilizing the aforementioned workplaces is conditional upon observing the provisions concerning safety and health.

Article 88: Actual and legal persons who work in construction or import and sell machines are obliged to observe matters of safety and protection.

Article 89: Before utilizing machines, instruments, tools, and other necessities which have been shown to be harmful according to tests performed in accordance with the bylaws confirmed by the Supreme Council of Technical Safety and Work Health, employers are obliged to perform the necessary tests via laboratories and centers supported by the Supreme Council on Technical Safety and keep the relevant documents and send a copy of them for the information of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

Article 90: All persons, actual or legal, who want to buy or produce the instruments for technical safety and health must send their specifications according to the case along with samples of them to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health, Medication, and Medical Training. After they are approved, they may produce or import these specifications.

Article 91: Employers and officers of all units mentioned in Article 85 of this law are obliged, on the basis of what the Supreme Council of Technical Safety confirmed, to prepare the means and resources necessary to secure the safety, well-being, and health of the workers in their work environment, put them at their disposal, and teach them how to use them and supervise them in following the health and safety provisions. The aforementioned employers and officers must also use and safeguard the instruments of individual health and safety and implement the instructions related to the workplace.

Article 92: All units mentioned in Article 85 of this law in which the employees, due to the exigencies of the job, are exposed to illnesses resulting from the job must organize a medical file for each of the aforementioned and help them through the medical health centers at least once a year and perform the necessary tests and record the results in the relevant file.

Note 1: Should the Medical Council give the opinion that someone receiving aid is suffering from an illness resulting from this job or is in danger thereof, the manager and relevant officers are obliged to transfer his work to an appropriate other part [of the workplace] without a cut in his compensation.

Note 2: Should indications of such an illness appear, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is obliged to visit and reconfirm the work environment’s technical, health, and safety conditions.

Article 93: In order to get the workers to cooperate and maintain the proper execution of the health and safety provisions in the work environment and anticipate accidents and illnesses, a Committee for Technical Safety and Work Health shall be organized in workplaces which the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training find needs it.

Note 1: The aforementioned committee will be composed of individuals specializing in the field of technical safety and occupational health and technical affairs of the workplace. Among its members, two qualified people who are supported by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and [the Ministry of] Health, Medicine, and Medical Training will be selected whose duties will be to prepare relations between the aforementioned committee with the employer and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training.

Note 2: The [committee] members’ organizational procedure will be based on the instructions which the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and [the Ministry of] Health, Medicine, and Medical Training will prepare and notify.

Article 94: In cases where one of several workers or employees of units mentioned in Article 85 of this law foresee an accident or an illness resulting from working in a related workshop or unit, they may bring this to the attention of the Committee for Technical Safety and Work Health or whoever is responsible for technical safety and work health, and this matter must in turn be related through this informed individual to be confirmed in a register which is kept for precisely this purpose.

Note: Should the unit’s employer or officer not consider an accident or an illness resulting from working in a relevant workshop or unit likely, he is obliged to announce this in the speediest manner along with his reasons and opinions to the nearest local Bureau of Labor and Social Affairs. The aforementioned bureau is obliged in the speediest manner to investigate this matter and take the necessary measures through labor inspectors.

Article 95: The employer or the officials of the units mentioned in Article 85 of this law shall be responsible for executing the provisions and technical [safety] and workplace heath regulations. Should an accident occur because the unit’s employer or officials did not follow the aforementioned provisions, the aforementioned employer or official shall be responsible criminally, legally, and in accordance with the punishments listed in this law.

Note 1: The employer or officials of the units mentioned in Article 85 of this law are obliged to record all work-related accidents in a special register whose format is to be announced through the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and speedily turn over the records in writing for the information of the local Bureau of Labor and Social Affairs.

Note 2: Should the employer or manager of the units mentioned in Article 85 of this law have put the necessary means and resources for technical safety and occupational health at the worker’s disposal and the worker, in spite of the necessary training and previous warnings and without paying attention to the existing instructions and provisions, did not avail themselves of their presence, the employer will not be held responsible. Should there arise a difference of opinion, the Conflict Resolution Panel will have the final word.

Second Topic: Labor Inspection

Article 96: In order to properly implement this law and the regulations for technical safety, a General Bureau of Inspection of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs shall be organized with the following duties:

a)      Supervision over the implementation of the provisions regarding labor conditions, particularly supportive provisions related to difficult, hazardous, and dangerous jobs, the duration of work, salaries, worker’s welfare, and the employment of women and young workers.

b)      Supervision of the proper implementation of the provisions of the labor law and the bylaws and instructions related to technical safety.

c)       Training in matters related to technical safety and the guidance of the workers, employers, and all individuals who are exposed to harm resulting from work-related accidents and danger.

d)       Review and investigation of difficulties resulting from the implementation of the provisions of technical safety, and the preparation of the necessary suggestions to reform the norms and instructions related to the aforementioned issues appropriate to the development and progress of technology.

e)       The investigation of labor-related accidents in the workplaces covered and the general analysis of statistics of such cases in order to prevent accidents.

Note 1: The Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training is responsible for the planned control, evaluation, and investigation of labor health and worker’s medicine and is obliged to take the necessary measures in this matter.

Note 2: Investigation on a continuing basis along with warnings about difficulties, errors, and faults and, should they be necessary, requests for investigation of violators are to be done by the proper authorities.

Article 97: Being hired to investigate working conditions requires passing periods of theoretical and practical training as soon as one is hired.

Note: The bylaws on the conditions for hiring inspectors of work and experts on work health shall be drafted jointly by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training, and the Organization of Administrative and Employment Affairs and shall be confirmed by the Cabinet. These conditions will be so codified as to secure the employment stability and independence of the investigations and protect them from any sort of interference.

Article 98: Labor investigators and labor health experts have the right, within the range of their duties, to enter any foundation included in Article 85 of this law without prior announcement and carry out an inspection. They can even refer to the relevant registers and documents and, should it be necessary, obtain copies of all or part of them.

Note: The entry of labor inspectors into home workplaces shall be conditional upon obtaining written permission of the local court.

Article 99: Labor inspectors and labor health experts have the right, in order to obtain information about the composition of materials with which the workers come into contact or use in the course of their work, to take samples sufficient to make the necessary tests against a receipt and to turn them over to their immediate superiors.

Note: The other provisions related to how the labor inspector would be in accordance with a bylaw shall be drafted by the Supreme Council for Technical Safety and Labor Health and confirmed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training. 

Article 100: All of the labor inspectors and professional health experts will be issued a special card according to their field, signed by the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs or the Minister of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training, which they must have on them when conducting inspections and which must be presented upon the request of officials or officers of the workplace.

Article 101: The report of the labor inspectors and health experts concerning the limits of their duties and powers will be in accordance with the report of judiciary officials.

Note 1: Labor inspectors and health experts may participate as informed experts in sessions of the Conflict Resolution authorities.

Note 2: Labor inspectors and health experts may not participate in the decision-making of Conflict Resolution authorities concerning cases in which they had previously expressed opinions as inspectors.

Article 102: Labor inspectors and health experts may not carry out inspections in workshops in which they themselves, or one of their relatives by marriage to the third rank, or one of their relatives by marriage to the first degree has direct influence.

Article 103: Labor inspectors and health experts do not have the right under any circumstance, even after having retired from government service, to reveal secrets and information which came into their hands through necessity of their work, or the names of individuals who gave them information or the various items which they told them.

Note: Violators of the provisions of this article will be liable for punishments stipulated in the relevant laws.

Article 104: Employers and other people who prevent the entrance of labor inspectors or health experts into workplaces covered by the law, or prevent the performance of their duties or refrain from giving the necessary information or documents will be subject to the punishments stipulated in this law in accordance with the case.

Article 105: Should, in the course of an investigation, a labor inspector or occupational health expert indicate the likelihood of an accident or a dangerous condition in the workplace, the labor inspector or occupational health expert is obliged to immediately inform the matters in writing to the employer or his representative as well as his own immediate superior.

Note 1: Should the Ministry of Labor and Public Affairs and the Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training, depending on the report of the labor inspector or occupational health expert, call on the local public court and should no public court have been organized there, the local public court is to immediately issue instructions that all or part of the workplace be closed and locked and sealed, and the court will immediately act in accordance with the provision issued and it will be implemented as soon as it is communicated.

An order to lift the closure will be issued by the aforementioned authority should the labor inspector or occupational health expert or relevant court expert confirm the elimination of the existing problem.

Note 2: The employer is obliged to pay the wages of the workers of the workplace during the days of the closure.

Note 3: Should those who have suffered damages from the stipulations mentioned in this article protest the report of the labor inspector or occupational health expert and the closure of the workplace, they can complain about the aforementioned authorities to the appropriate court and this court is obliged to immediately and as a priority investigate the matter. The decision of this court is final and is to be implemented.

Article 106: Instructions and executive bylaws related to this chapter are to be confirmed by the cabinet at the joint suggestion of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Training.