NCRI – The Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Industrial Company’s Naybar workers held a protest rally on Tuesday November 8.
The Naybar workers gathered in the factory area and in front of the administrative building, demanding that their insurance claims be recognized.
According to ILNA state news agency, one of the protesting workers has said that the reason for their protest has been non-payment of the unemployment insurance premium for the Naybar workers who have been working at the company between 1999 to 2013. He pointed to another protest held by the workers in 2014 regarding the same issue and said that ”following the event, the government issued a directive according to which an amount of 25 billion tomans was dedicated to the workers’ unpaid unemployment insurance premiums.”
The worker described that once the rest of the workers’ seasonal unemployment insurance premium is paid out, about 250 workers out of a total of 350 will be retired. “Nevertheless, it’s now two years since the directive was issued and still it’s not clear whether the remaining amount related to the workers’ seasonal unemployment insurance premium will be paid out or not”, he added.
He then explained that since the sugarcane can be harvested only for half of a year, so the workers are hired seasonally and their insurance premium is paid for half of a year, and that’s the reason why there’s a gap in their insurance records.
He said that the workers are also demanding that their last year’s exploitation benefits be paid out and continued: “apparently, the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company’s employer has pledged among the protesting workers today to pay their remaining 10-billion-toman insurance premium to the social security within the next two months.”