KDP's discriminatory rules-Get a job at oil firms in Iraqi Kurdistan

KDPs discriminatory rules - Get a job at int'l oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan — An Iraqi oil worker, DNO company, Iraqi Kurdistan 2014. Photo: Courtesy/ dno.no

Araz Barwari | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Local government authorities of KDP made discriminatory work rules to get a job at international oil companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan

Local government authorities of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have made discriminatory rules about getting a job at international oil companies operating in the province of Duhok, Iraq.

These rules have been made to benefit only job seekers who are affiliated to KDP political party and those who vote for the same party in times of election.

The discriminatory rules have not been written officially or posted anywhere but are covertly implemented under the pretext and guise of public employment service job carried out by local government offices in the province of Duhok.

These discriminatory rules are commonly practiced by the government head office of Chamanke sub-district/ Duhok province, where several international oil companies operate.

The rules say, for the job seekers to be able to apply and send in their work CVs to an international oil company, job seekers first need to be recommended and referred to the human resource department of the oil company by the nearest sub-district, district or governorate general offices to the area where the oil company operates, otherwise the HR department manager of the oil company will not take work CVs, neither will call you in for a job interview, regardless of your good or poor work skills.

The rule also says all job seekers who seek to find a job at international oil companies need to drop their work CV at the district, or sub-district or governorate office depending where the oil company operates and under which local government jurisdiction the company falls.

Now, when oil companies start the process of hiring different workers or when a job vacancy arise, the human resources department of the oil companies contact the local government Mayor office and ask the mayor to send in all CVs of the job seekers to the HR department in order to choose and hire workers with right skills for the vacant position in the company.

However, the mayor office handpick the CVs of job seekers and send only the work CVs of those who have KDP membership. A recommendation letter from KDP office is attached to the work CVs of job seekers who are politically affiliated to KDP party in which it tells the Mayor which CV to choose and send it to the HR manger of oil companies for job interview.

This is clearly an act of covert discrimination which is illegal because it means CVs of only certain job seekers who belong to KDP political party, are sent to the HR managers of oil companies and the rest of job seekers who don’t have a recommendation letter from the KDP office, will never get a chance to have a job interview at oil companies in the province of Duhok.

And as a result, the CVs of those job applicants who don’t have a recommendation letter from KDP offices attached to it will rotten at the mayor office unless they are supported with recommendation letters from KDP office in the district.

Many job seekers, who are politically independent or affiliated to different political parties in Kurdistan of Iraq, started realizing that without a recommendation letter from KDP office, the Mayor office will never send their work CVs to the international oil companies to get a chance to have their work skills reviewed by HR managers.

However, some of them are visiting KDP offices asking to write them recommendation letters for the mayor office to get their work CVs sent to the oil companies as well.

But the KDP offices don’t write them recommendation letters unless they first agree to become a KDP member and practically fill out the KDP party membership form and sign it. And secondly, they agree to vote for the KDP party in times of election.

Araz Barwari is a law student at the University of Nawroz in Kurdistan of Iraq.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.