Conflict Resolution Authorities

Article 157: Any personal conflict between an employer and a worker or apprentice over the execution of this law and other labor regulations, job training contracts, workplace agreements, or collective labor contracts shall in the first stage be resolved by direct conciliation between the employer and the worker or apprentice or their representatives in the Supreme Labor Council. Should there be no Supreme Labor Council in the workplace, it should be resolved through the workers’ Craft Society or the legal representative of the workers and employers. Should there be no resolution, it shall be resolved through the Arbitration and the Conflict Resolution Panels in an orderly fashion.

Article 158: The Arbitration Panel mentioned in this law shall be composed of the following people:

1)       A representative of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

2)       A representative of the workers selected by the provincial Islamic Labor Councils’ Coordinating Committee.

3)       A representative of the managers of industries selected by the provincial Committee of the Employers’ Trade Associations if necessary and with due consideration to these panels’ burden of work.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs may take measures to form several Arbitration Panels at the level of each province.

Note: A worker who must, in accordance with the decision of the Arbitration Panel, be fired has the right to appeal this decision to the Conflict Resolution Panel and mount a defense.

Article 159: The decision of the Arbitration Panel is to be executed fifteen days after its announcement. Should one of the parties object to the aforementioned decision within the aforementioned space of time, it shall present its objection in writing to the Conflict Resolution Panel. The opinion of the Conflict Resolution Panel shall be final and its implementation obligatory upon being issued. The decisions of the members of the panels must be recorded in a ledger.

Article 160: The provincial Conflict Resolution Panel shall be composed of three workers’ representatives of that area’s workers, chosen by the provincial Islamic Labor Councils Coordinating Committee or the Workers Craft Association’s Committee or a group of workers’ representatives from the region’s units, and three representatives from the government (the General Secretary of [the Ministry] of Labor and Social Affairs, the governor, and the local Chief Justice or their representatives) for a term of two years.  Should it be necessary and taking into consideration the level of work of the panels, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs may proceed to form several Conflict Resolution Panels at the provincial level.

Article 161: Conflict Resolution Panels shall be organized in units of Labor and Social Affairs in the necessary number according to the amount of work and its urgency and, to the extent possible, outside of administrative hours.

Article 162: Conflict Resolution Panels will issue written invitations to the parties to the dispute to be present in their investigative sessions. The absence of either party or a fully-empowered representative thereto shall not prevent an investigation and the issuing of an opinion by the panel unless the panel had indicated that the presence of both parties was necessary. In this case, there will only be one further occasion to be re-invited. In any case, the panel shall investigate the case as soon as possible after receiving it and offer the necessary opinion.

Article 163: Should it be necessary, Dispute Resolution Panels may invite officials and experts from Islamic societies and councils from productive, industrial, service, or agricultural units and listen to their opinions and information concerning the subject at hand.

Article 164: The provisions relevant to electing members of the Arbitration and Conflict Resolution Panels and how their meetings shall be organized shall be drafted by the Supreme Labor Council and confirmed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

Article 165: Should the Conflict Resolution Panel declare a worker’s firing to have been unjustified, it shall issue a judgment calling for the return of the fired worker and the payment of his wages from the day of his firing. Otherwise (should his firing be found justified), the worker will be covered by the right to annual compensation at the rate indicated in Article 27 of this law.

Note: Should the worker not wish to return to the unit in question, the employer is obliged to pay 45 days per year in accordance with the worker’s record of service.

Article 166: The binding decisions issued by the labor Conflict Resolution authorities must be implemented, and will be implemented through the appropriate implementation of the court’s judgments. The relevant regulations will be a bylaw which will be drafted by the Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs and of the Courts and confirmed by the cabinet.