Kurdistan retirees: +25 thousand unpaid for 4 months

Shafaq News/ Over 25,000 newly retired public employees in Iraqi Kurdistan have gone unpaid for more than four months amid an ongoing financial crisis, the Kurdistan Retirees Union revealed on Tuesday.

Union spokesperson Sadiq Sheikh Othman confirmed that retirees have not received any payments since November 2024, despite being formally referred under the Unified Retirement Law. “The law grants a six-month salary bonus to support the transition, but none of these entitlements have been delivered,” he told our agency.

Othman also warned that the delay has severely impacted living conditions, leaving many unable to cover essential expenses and fueling growing public discontent.

Notably, the broader dispute over salary payments between the Federal and Regional governments has led to repeated delays, triggering protests across multiple provinces.

On March 3, the Kurdish Ministry of Finance and Economy announced an agreement with Baghdad to implement Law No. 9 of 2014, which governs employee entitlements.