Iraqi Federal Court Postpones Resolution of KRG Employees’ Salary Dispute

Iraqi Federal Court's Media

Iraqi Federal Court.

The Iraqi Federal Court judges, having returned from performing the obligatory Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, have postponed their scheduled deliberations on the ongoing dispute over the salaries of public employees in the Kurdistan Region. According to a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament, this delay is intended to provide the involved parties, particularly the ruling State Administration Coalition, with additional time to negotiate a resolution before the court issues its ruling.

PUK lawmaker Gharib Ahmed told PUKMEDIA that the judges have returned from Saudi Arabia and are expected to reconvene by the end of the week to address the suspension of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) employees’ salaries. 

He noted that the Federal Court, alongside many Iraqi parliamentarians and government ministers, views the decision by Finance Minister Taif Sami to halt salary payments as unconstitutional, illegal, and an abuse of power that should be annulled.

Previously, PUK lawmaker Karwan Yarwais told PUKMEDIA that the court’s forthcoming decisions could compel both federal and regional governments to engage in negotiations, thereby shifting the matter from a political dispute to one governed by constitutional and legal frameworks. 

He referenced prior Federal Court rulings (complaints No. 224 and 269 of 2023) which mandated resolution of the Kurdistan Region’s salary issue, stating it would be unprecedented for the court to overturn these decisions. 

Yarwais added that a fair ruling could depoliticise the issue and relieve Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani from related political pressures.

The salary dispute intensified after the Iraqi Minister of Finance announced last month that the federal government would cease allocating salaries to the Kurdistan Region, asserting that the Region’s full share of the national budget for 2023, 2024, and 2025—approved by Parliament—had already been disbursed. 

In response, on 1 June 2025, public employees from the Kurdistan Region filed a lawsuit with the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court demanding enforcement of prior rulings that require the federal and regional prime ministers to nationalise (Tawtin) the payment of all public employees’ salaries. The court has pledged to decide on the lawsuit promptly.

This ongoing crisis reflects a decade-long financial dispute between Erbil and Baghdad, with the Kurdistan Region’s public sector salary payments repeatedly affected by budgetary and political disagreements. The Federal Court’s anticipated state order to compel the Iraqi Ministry of Finance to resume salary payments is awaited by both parties as a potential turning point in resolving this protracted issue.



PUKMEDIA