A Retired Workers' Activist Criticizes the Ministry of Labor: They Want to Keep Workers in Absolute Poverty

While Iran's economy is highly affected by the dollar, retirees believe that the Ministry of Labor's interpretations are one-sided and only benefit the ministry, keeping workers in 'absolute poverty.' Workers are demanding the implementation of Article 96 of the Social Security Law, which emphasizes 'increasing pensions based on the rise in living costs.' Yadollah Faraji, a retired workers' activist, criticized the Ministry of Labor's execution of the law in an interview with ILNA, a news agency affiliated with the government organization 'House of Workers,' stating: 'Unfortunately, instead of executing the law and fulfilling their legal duties, they have become interpreters of the law, interpreting legal clauses to their advantage.' This activist pointed out that Article 41 of the Labor Law and Article 96 of the Social Security Law clearly mandate wage and pension increases, arguing that the Ministry of Labor, through 'self-serving interpretations,' aims to keep workers in absolute poverty. According to Faraji, the Ministry does not accept the official inflation rate, and therefore, it is unreasonable to expect them to consider the cost of living and rising expenses as a decision-making factor in wages. Faraji's criticisms come as the minimum household livelihood basket is set at 30 million tomans, while workers and retirees receive wages of around 10 or 11 million tomans. Reports from Iranian media indicate that the price increases of goods and services in the first twenty days of the new year have not only rendered the wage increases ineffective but have also exacerbated last year's difficult living conditions. It has been reported that public transport fares have increased by up to 40%, food prices by 30%, and electronics, influenced by the dollar's price, have seen increases of up to 40%, with expectations that this trend will continue. In the gold and currency market, fluctuations have led to a record dollar price of 65,000 tomans, with analysts interpreting the return to the 63,000 tomans level as a preparation for new records. A recent report from the 'Tejarat News' website indicates that the minimum wage for a worker is equivalent to 136 dollars, which has experienced an unprecedented decrease compared to the dollar since 2017. Faraji told ILNA that under the current methods employed by the Ministry of Labor, it does not seem likely that the minimum pension will increase by more than 35% as approved by the Supreme Labor Council. Alongside Faraji's criticisms of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, which is one of the most challenging ministries in the Islamic Republic, a retired worker named Morovati also stated in a call to ILNA that given the current economic conditions, proper adjustment or equalization for retirees is no longer significant. He emphasized that the implementation of Article 96 of the Social Security Law is the demand of retirees, asserting that according to this legal article, the increase in retirees' income should match living costs, and pension demands should increase accordingly. If the law is implemented, retirees would not need equalization or adjustment. Roozbeh Korduni, the former head of the Social Security Research Center, previously emphasized in an interview with ILNA that according to official statistics, the population below the poverty line has doubled, and the number of workers below the poverty line has increased fivefold, leading to the 'prevalence of addiction and AIDS among workers.' He stressed that the population below the poverty line in Iran has increased both at the national level and within the working, employee, and rural communities, exacerbating social problems and harms in the labor sector. Farshad Momeni, an economist and university professor, also described the living conditions of the Iranian people as critical in a conversation with the 'Econogar' website on March 14, stating that 30% of the country's population lives below the poverty line, and another 40% are on the verge of falling below it due to current wage determination methods. The fight against poverty and improving people's economic conditions has been one of the slogans of the leaders of the Islamic Republic since 1988, which in practice has not only failed to eradicate poverty but has also led experts to believe that the economic behavior of the Islamic Republic has resulted in a balanced development of poverty. The Parliament Research Center's latest report on poverty in the summer of 2023 indicated that over a decade, the poverty rate in the country has increased from 19% to over 30%, meaning that with a population of 86 million, more than 30 million Iranians live below the poverty line. These statistics are published by a government-affiliated institution while daily protests by workers and retirees demand wage increases in line with the existing inflation in the country.