Iran’s regime has come up with a new trick to exploit Iranian workers even more, who are already earning wages 4 to 6 times below the poverty line.
One of the crises facing millions of Iranian workers is the lack of job security and widespread unemployment. Workers who are fired by the regime mafia for various reasons lose even the meager wages they earned, pushing them to the brink of homelessness, sleeping on the streets, and even living in graves.
But to prevent growing anger of workers from targeting the regime, it has introduced a clause in its labor laws, promising to pay allowances to unemployed workers. This is only if the workers can navigate the corrupt insurance system and qualify for insurance.
In this case, how much allowance do they receive?
According to the regime’s Social Security Organization report in April 2024, the allowance is only 23.88 million rials per month (ISNA – April 6, 2024). This means, based on the 300 million rial poverty line, it is 14 times below the poverty line; or only equivalent to buying 3 kilograms of meat.
It is clear that the regime is worried about the explosive state of the society, especially the labor community. Therefore, the regime is plotting to achieve two goals:
First: to deny even the meager allowance to millions of workers it has made unemployed and pocket it for the regime.
Second: to blame the workers themselves for their unemployment.
How?
Recently, Ali Hossein Ra’iyati-Fard, the Deputy Minister of Labor Relations in the Ministry of Cooperation, Labor, and Social Welfare, citing a labor law passed in 1981 (43 years ago) that was never implemented, said: “Unemployed workers must receive technical training to qualify for reemployment.” (ILNA – June 5, 2024)
According to the state-run ILNA news agency, this means that if unemployed workers do not undergo this training, they have no chance of reemployment, and their meager allowance will be cut.
For example, a lathe worker who has worked in this field for 15 years and suddenly becomes a target of the regime’s purge must receive lathe training during unemployment to possibly find a job again.
But regime officials do not specify what additional skills these experienced workers need to learn from this fictitious training?
A worker told the state-run ILNA news agency on June 5, 2024, “On one hand, there’s the pain of unemployment; on the other, there’s the stress of participating in technical and vocational courses. They are truly putting us in a bind.”
This is the regime’s “one stone, two birds” tactic.
First, they cut the meager allowance of workers and pocket the money under the pretext of not attending the fictitious training or missing one or two sessions.
Second, they blame the workers for their unemployment, claiming they didn’t attend these courses.
This is an ongoing story of the regime’s continuously updated tricks.
But the impending fire is likely to burn this entire structure to its roots. All signs point to this reality, including the ongoing protests of all sectors of Iran’s labor community as well as the activities of Iran’s rebellious youths in supporting the workers of Iran.