A Representative Reacts to the 'Construction Workers Insurance' Bill; Mafia Exists in Parliament

A member of parliament criticized the approach of other representatives regarding the construction workers' insurance bill, stating that the only law that has not only failed to be implemented after 40 years but has also been repealed is this law, indicating that 'the mafia is still present in parliament.' Ali Babaei, head of the labor faction in parliament, considered this action a negative score for the parliament and described the decision as a 'big and strategic mistake.' Babaei also criticized the increase in retirement age and the increase in workers' insurance contributions in the seventh development plan. While in May of this year, parliament members voted for the urgency of the amendment to the construction workers' insurance law and approved its general principles on July 4, they suddenly decided to suspend their amendment for two years, leaving the law passed in 2014 as the basis for the Social Security Organization's operations. Mohammad Reza Pourabrahimi, head of the economic commission in parliament, defended the 'suspension of the law' by stating to the IRNA news agency, 'During the implementation of this law, we witnessed a 45% decrease in the issuance of construction permits.' Pourabrahimi believes that people have been harmed by the implementation of construction workers' insurance. Mohsen Zangeneh, another member of the economic commission, also believes that the approval of the amendment to Article 5 of the construction workers' insurance law in the eleventh parliament has severely negatively impacted the issuance of construction permits. He attributed the decline in housing construction and employment in this sector to the approval of this law. These claims come while the main problem for opponents of this plan is that a large number of the 1.2 million construction workers are still uninsured, and 14 trillion tomans are needed to complete the insurance for this group. According to what IRNA reported from the new plan, representatives had divided cities into five groups based on population so that the employer's insurance contribution would be calculated based on regions and as a percentage of the monthly wage of that year. In the first group, cities with up to 50,000 people would have a contribution of 1% to 2% of the annual salary, and in the second group, cities with up to 500,000 people would have a contribution of 1% to 4% of the annual salary. In the third group, cities with a population of 500,000 to 1 million would have a contribution of 1.5% to 5%. In cities with more than 1 million people, the insurance contribution would be 2% to 6% of the annual salary. The head of the Supreme Association of Construction Workers' Unions reacted to the parliament's decision to suspend the amendment to Article 5 of the social insurance law for construction workers, stating that with this bill, no construction worker would be insured anymore, and the insurance of other workers would also be cut due to a lack of resources. Akbar Shokat criticized this decision in an interview with the Tasnim news agency, saying, 'The members of parliament have dashed all the hopes of construction workers.' According to Shokat, this was a 'strange action' taken by parliament members against the weakest workers in the country. Construction labor activists also believe that the construction workers' insurance law had flaws before 2014, which led to the addition of Article 5 to the law, but this law also had issues, and thus the discussion of amending Article 5 was raised in parliament. They believe that with the suspension of the law, more construction workers will be deprived of their basic rights, namely insurance.