- Based on government statistics, the livelihood basket is 178 million rials ($395.5), and the minimum monthly salary of workers is 53 million rials ($117.7)
- Point-to-point inflation is more than 53%, and the price increase is more than 71%, workers’ salaries increased by only 27%
The unprecedented exploitation and plunder of workers by the ruling mullahs are intensifying every day. In sharp contrast, the official and unofficial funding for the regime’s suppressive, warmongering, and terrorism machine, especially the IRGC, is increasing every day. Despite the false and appalling boasting of the regime’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, the sheer exploitation of workers has never been as intense as it is today.
After much bargaining, as stated by Labor Minister Solat Mortazavi, in the year 1402, the basic monthly salaries of workers increased by only 27% and “from 41,790,000 rials ($92.87) to 53,083,300 rials ($117.96),” according to the state news agency, IRNA, on March 20, 2023.
Iran’s Statistics Center announced the inflation rate to be “over 50%”, but according to Arman Emrooz on March 1, 2023, “in February 2023, the point-to-point inflation for households was 53.4%”.
In its latest report, the same Center announced that “housing inflation in January this year has increased by 66% compared to the same period last year,” as reported by Mardomsalari on March 1, 2023. At the Tehran City Council meeting, “a 40% bus fare price increase was unanimously approved,” according to the state-run Student News Agency on March 14, 2023.
Based on state-run media:
- “The price of every commodity has increased by no less than 70 to 100 percent” (Ebtekar, March 1, 2023).
- “In no historical period has this hyperinflation of food been experienced, not even during the occupation of the country during World War II. The food inflation rate has exceeded 71% in February” (Mardomsalari, March 1, 2023).
- “Price analysis of 11 selected commodities shows that they have increased 12-fold on average from 2017 to the end of February 2023. While the minimum salary has increased about sixfold since 2017,” according to Resalat daily on March 6, 2023.
- “From 2017 to September 2022, housing prices in Tehran have gone up by 750%,” as reported by Eskenas newspaper on March 1, 2023.
- “A worker has to pay an average of more than 80,883,000 rials (179.74) per month to rent a 70-sqr. meter apartment in Tehran,” according to Sharq Newspaper on March 2, 2023.
- “The cost of the workers’ livelihood basket has now increased to more than 17 840,0,000 rials ($396),” as reported by Javannewspaper on March 16, 2023.
According to government statistics, the salary increases of workers, if they have a job, are 25 to 45 percent less than the inflation rate. At the same time, according to paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 41 of the regime’s own labor law, the minimum wage must be commensurate with “the inflation rate” and “enough to support the life of a family, the average number of which is announced by official authorities.”
This meager salary is not even paid to the workers. “Thousands of workers in all corners of the country expect to receive 3-month, 7-month, and 15-month salary arrears. In addition, thousands of workers, under the shadow of temporary, unstable, and unsupported contracts, start their morning job with the fear of being unemployed the next day, and occupational accidents continue to claim victims due to the insecurity of the work environment,” as reported by Etemad newspaper on May 1, 2022.
Since the leaders of the regime and especially that of the IRGC have taken the primary production and economic institutions under their control, they have disbanded labor organizations and suppressed the workers who dare to speak up and protest. They trample the rights of the workers with utmost cruelty and brutality.
All the ratifications of the International Labor Organization and the standards of minimum workers’ rights have been ignored by this regime such that:
- Iranian workers do not have job security. They are doomed to either have a minimum wage to make ends meet or are threatened to lose their job.
- No law protects the workers’ rights; in all legal disputes, everything is against the workers and in favor of the employers.
- Workers and their families do not benefit from health insurance or pension credit.
- In practice, workers do not have the right to form any independent, registered trade unions or their own elected representatives. Only the Islamic Workers’ Councils, which are crafted by the regime, have the right to exist.
- Non-payment of workers’ salaries is common practice, and workers sometimes wait up to 15 months to receive their meager wages.
- Workplaces do not provide safety measures. According to Ali Hossein Raiti, the Deputy Minister of Labor, “about 800 workers die every year as a result of work-related accidents in the country” (ISNA news agency, May 7, 2022). Additionally, several thousand workers are disabled.
Over the course of 44 years of mullahs’ rule, workers have experienced a steady decline in their economic well-being, as poverty and unemployment rates continue to rise annually. The overthrow of this regime is the only viable solution to put an end to this inhumane and escalating exploitation. During the 2022 nationwide uprising, various groups, including workers, took to the streets of Iran chanting slogans such as “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator.”
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
Labor Committee
March 20, 2023