Death of Two Workers and Injury of Three Others Amid Ongoing Workplace Insecurity in Iran

The ILNA news agency reported the death and injury of five workers at a factory located in the Shamsabad industrial town in Tehran. The cause of the incident was reported to be carbon monoxide poisoning. According to the agency's account, five workers were resting in a small room of an industrial workshop in the Shamsabad industrial town in southern Tehran when they were affected by toxic carbon monoxide gas, leading to the death of two workers and the hospitalization of three others. Despite numerous domestic and international warnings about the high rate of workplace accidents, reports of worker fatalities and injuries continue to emerge from various workshops across the country. It is noted that what reaches the pages of publications or news agency reports is only a small fraction of the incidents that occur daily. Masoud Ghadi Pasha, the deputy of medical and laboratory affairs at the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, claimed on May 1 of this year that the death toll from workplace accidents in the year 1401 (2022-2023) was '1,900 workers.' The Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers' Syndicate, in a statement reacting to the legal medicine statistics in Iran, wrote: 'Although such statistics are not reliable, they indicate that the unsafe work environment has become a killing ground for workers.' These statistics come as labor activist Ehsan Sohrabi stated on October 3 that the actions of the Islamic Republic officials regarding the safety of workshops were merely performative, asserting that 'a government memorandum cannot prevent the deaths of workers' and that 'accidents in production enterprises have not decreased.' The lack of safety continues to claim workers' lives; the death of two workers due to negligence highlights the dangerous world of labor in Iran. There have been four fatal incidents in six months in Baneh, and a continuous cycle of worker deaths persists in Iran, including the burning of a 63-year-old guard and the death of a 65-year-old worker due to a fall from a building. The continuation of workplace accidents in Iran includes the death of a young man in Kurdistan and the fatalities of two individuals at the Parand power plant. A labor activist noted that 'a very small number' of 'workplace incidents' are reported in the media, while the increase in workplace accidents in Iran has resulted in the death and injury of 'eight workers' in just six days.