Government Debt to Nurses Announced as 7500 Billion Tomans

In the midst of reports of strikes and gatherings and the efforts of healthcare staff in the country to emigrate, the Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education states that the government owes nurses 7500 billion tomans. Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi said on Saturday, September 3, to the Jamaran website that the total claims of nurses amount to about 7.5 trillion tomans, and it has been approved that all their rights and claims will be paid as soon as possible. He did not specify exactly when nurses would receive their financial claims from the government. Mr. Zafarghandi had also promised last Friday that the debt to nurses would be paid 'gradually.' In his interview on Saturday, the Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education stated that we must try to ensure that nurses' rights, such as overtime payments, are increased: 'This increase must naturally be calculated and paid, but all their previous claims will be paid.' Aside from the shortage of healthcare personnel, which significantly increases the workload on nurses, their very low wages, along with the government's delay in paying salaries, have also faced protests from healthcare staff. In this context, Mohammad Sharifi-Moqaddam, the Secretary-General of the Nurses' House, stated in May of this year that while the World Health Organization standard is at least 3 nurses and on average 5 to 6 nurses per 1000 people, in Iran this figure is 1.6 nurses. He further pointed out the low wages of nurses, stating that today the salaries of official and employed nurses are 16 million tomans, and the salary of contract and temporary nurses is about 12 million tomans, which at a rate of 60,000 tomans per dollar, the 12 million tomans salary is equivalent to 200 dollars, whereas even an Iranian nurse emigrating to Germany receives 2000 euros for a shift upon arrival, and this salary increases to 3000 or 3500 euros in subsequent months. Meanwhile, protests and strikes by nurses have begun in various cities across Iran for the past three weeks and have spread to Tehran as well. Nurses are protesting both the lack of attention to their demands and the harsh working conditions, including 'mandatory overtime with very low wages, exhausting work accompanied by insults and threats' in the workplace. In this context, some reports also indicate threats and even the arrest of some protesters. The Coordination Council of Nurses' Protests announced on Wednesday that Zahra Tamaddon, head nurse of Ward 10 of Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, along with some nurses from this hospital, were arrested by security forces on Tuesday, August 30, due to protesting against harsh working conditions.