Continuing Fatal Work Incidents in Iran; Death of a Welder and a Poultry Worker

Due to the lack of supervisory trade organizations and necessary government support, workers in Iran continue to face numerous hazards daily, and sometimes, as today, news of several workers' deaths due to 'work incidents' emerges in domestic media. According to the ILNA news agency, a 'welder' was killed while performing welding on a '5-meter sand and gravel separator' in a sand washing workshop in the village of 'Abrovan' in the city of Sarakhs, due to 'the chain being released and the separator hitting his head.' According to a labor source, this incident occurred in recent days for a worker around 35 years old, and he lost his life before rescue teams arrived on the scene. In another report, domestic news sources have reported that a worker employed at a 'poultry farm' in the village of Qoupi Baba Ali in the Mahabad County of West Azerbaijan Province died due to 'electrocution.' Reports indicate that this rural poultry worker was '40 years' old and lost his life before being transferred to a medical center. In the early months of this year, Masoud Ghadi Pasha, the deputy for medical and laboratory affairs of the Legal Medicine Organization of the Islamic Republic, claimed that the death toll from work incidents in the year 1401 was '1900 workers.' These statistics come as labor activist Ehsan Sohrabi previously described the Islamic Republic's officials' actions regarding workshop safety as performative, stating that with a 'government memorandum,' it is impossible to prevent workers' deaths and that 'incidents in production units have not decreased.' This labor activist also noted that only a 'small number' of workshop incidents are reported in the media, and many incidents 'do not even appear in official statistics.' The Nationwide Union of Retirees of Iran also recently emphasized in a statement that the statistics of workers dying or becoming disabled in work-related incidents are 'a sign of the negligence of the executive and supervisory bodies of the Ministry of Labor in compelling employers to rectify their shortcomings and failures in providing safety equipment.' This retirees' organization has stated that the Ministry of Labor of the Islamic Republic is obliged to 'report to workers and their families what benefit and effectiveness the huge budgets for supervision and inspection of this ministry have had.' Injuries of 7 workers in the explosion of a melting pot at a metal industries factory in Saveh. Coal miners of Tarzeh Damghan gathered on the third day of their strike in Shahrud. A fire at a cosmetics factory left over 50 injured. More than a thousand workers have died in work-related incidents over six months. The lack of safety continues to claim workers' lives; the death of a worker due to a fall from a building. The lack of safety for workers in Iran; annually, two thousand workers suffer from 'electrical burns.'