Iran: The Regime Avoids Setting the Minimum Wage for Workers in the Iranian New Year (1403) to Announce It During the Eid Holiday Like in 1402

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National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)-Labor Committee
NCRI

 

While according to the bylaws of the regime’s “Supreme Labor Council”, the minimum wage for the new Iranian year (which starts on March 21) should be determined in February of each year, the minimum wage for 1403 has not yet been determined in the last days of 1402. The government-owned Etemad newspaper wrote on March 11: “The first meeting of the Supreme Labor Council to review next year’s wages and salaries is being held today, while less than 10 days are left until the end of the year, and the government has succeeded, like last year, in dragging out the process of determining wages so that there is less room for bargaining for workers’ representatives.”

Last year, Sawlat Mortazavi, the labor minister of Ebrahim Raisi, announced the minimum wage at 3 am on March 20, 2023, in order to prevent any reaction from workers and laborers.

Workers and laborers have always been victims of the mullahs’ regime, but this oppression has become much more severe since the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, so much so that according to the state media, “in the two years of Raisi’s government, the real value of wages has decreased to the lowest level in the past decade and does not even reach $90.”

This is while, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, “the prices of fruits and vegetables have increased by 100 to 200 percent in the past two years, and the prices of white and red meat have also increased by more than four times compared to the summer of 2021.” (Setareh Sobh newspaper, March 11, 2024). It is clear that with these meager wages and the runaway rise in prices, the situation of workers and laborers is disastrous.

Last year, the minimum wage for workers for 1402 increased by 27%. While in 1401, “the price of no commodity has increased by less than 70 to 100 percent” (Etemad government newspaper, March 1, 2023). According to paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 41 of the regime’s labor law, the minimum wage must be “based on the inflation rate” and “be enough to support a family of 3.2 people, which is the average number of family members in Iran.”

According to precise calculations, today the “cost of living basket” has been calculated at “328 million and 500 thousand rials” for Tehran and “265 million and 500 thousand rials” nationwide (Setareh Sobh, March 11, 2024).

According to the Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in order to prevent the situation of workers from getting worse, the minimum wage for March 2024 should not be less than 330 million rials, and it should also increase throughout the year in line with the trend of increasing prices of basic goods and be balanced with the cost of living basket. Of course, there is no doubt that the anti-worker and anti-human mullahs’ regime will never agree to such rights peacefully. The realization of the rights of all people, especially workers and laborers, is only possible with the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime and the establishment of democracy and popular sovereignty.

National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

Labor Committee

15 March 2024

 

Iran: The Regime Avoids Setting the Minimum Wage for Workers in the Iranian New Year (1403) to Announce It During the Eid Holiday Like in 1402

 

 

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