ILNA's Attack on the Government Under the Pretext of 'Workers' Week'; Ambiguous Statistics for Suppressing Workers' Livelihoods

The news agency 'ILNA' believes that the government is unlawfully refraining from the regular calculation and publication of the 'poverty line.' The only time the poverty line was published by the Ministry of Labor was in December 2022, and it was not considered in policymaking and decision-making regarding workers' livelihoods. According to this media outlet affiliated with the House of Workers, 'the second paragraph of Article 41 of the Labor Law emphasizes the necessity of calculating the minimum living costs of workers' households; therefore, reliable statistical data regarding the 'poverty line of households' can serve as the basis for calculating the livelihood basket of workers' households.' From the perspective of this news agency, the only official data related to people's livelihoods in recent years is the poverty line of approximately 15 million tomans, which was announced by the Welfare Deputy of the Ministry of Labor in winter 2022. The report emphasizes that with the 'lack of reliable statistics regarding the poverty line' and 'the government's officials' non-compliance' with the data extracted by workers, the livelihood basket announced by the government is called into question. ILNA writes: 'It is unclear how the livelihood basket of 13 million tomans was calculated and by what metric, especially given that according to an official entity, the 'poverty line,' which should be much lower than the livelihood basket, was around 15 million tomans in 2022.' The author of the article points out that the 'important issue' is how government representatives calculated the figure of 13 million tomans and brought it to the Supreme Labor Council meeting for determining the 2023 minimum wage; why there was no 'transparency and publication of precise information' regarding the calculation of this so-called 'livelihood basket.' ILNA raises the question: 'How is it that in a year where food inflation was at least 70% and housing inflation was at least 100%, the 9 million tomans livelihood basket of 2021 only increased by 4 million tomans to reach 13 million tomans?' The House of Workers-affiliated news agency, ILNA, also questions the method of calculating inflation, stating: 'The inflation calculation basket of the Statistical Center does not resemble or match the consumption basket of households in the country, especially workers; they include items in this calculation basket that have low frequency and consumption levels, and inflation has less impact on them, in other words, they lower the inflation data.' The author claims: 'The Statistical Center has not released the same inconsistent data for March and April 2023; an occurrence that, according to some economic experts, raises the suspicion that they might change the calculation base, and thus 'controlling inflation' is achieved through number manipulation.' Another point addressed is the announcement of inflation by the Central Bank for March, where ILNA claims that when the point-to-point inflation was 63.9 in March 2023 compared to March 2022, certainly the prices of goods and services consumed by workers during this period were much higher and close to 100%. Protests by telecommunications retirees in 10 provinces; 'We saw no justice, only heard lies.' The Statistical Center's refusal to announce inflation for March and April; an expert says: livelihood is not a priority. Workers are awaiting the 'cancellation' of the 'minimum wage' decree by the 'Judicial Court.' The employers' representative regarding minimum wages: we have no plans to change wages. The slogan 'Inflation, price hikes, a disaster for the people'; protests against the livelihood situation were held in several cities.