Job Security Threatened by Apprenticeship Scheme; Labor Activist: They Want to Exploit Workers

The implementation of the "apprenticeship" scheme, which is set to be executed based on one of the supplementary clauses of the seventh development plan, has faced numerous criticisms from labor activists. In this regard, a labor activist told Voice of America that the government aims to exploit workers through this scheme. Although the designers and defenders of this supplementary clause claim it is intended to promote the apprenticeship system and enhance skill training for businesses and trades, critics emphasize that "the implementation of this law will make it easier for employers to dismiss workers." According to this law, businesses and trades with a maximum of four insured employees by the end of September 2023 can hire up to four individuals with "agreed wages and without the obligation to pay unemployment and retirement insurance, only paying for health and disability insurance." The employment of individuals under this clause for each person is limited to a maximum of two years and is conditional on maintaining the number of insured employees as of the date of this clause by the business or trade during the use of this clause. Mohammad Reza Tajik, a member of the Supreme Labor Council, announced in an interview with the Tasnim news agency that the Supreme Assembly of Workers' Representatives has a "serious opposition" to the "apprenticeship" scheme in the seventh development plan. He stated that the implementation of this scheme will leave no job security for workers, allowing employers to easily dismiss workers every two years without insurance and a specific contract. Tajik also deemed the skill training method in Iran ineffective and noted that in developed countries, skilled workers do not remain unemployed. However, the apprenticeship method is not the same as skill training. Additionally, while labor activists and retirees oppose the implementation of this scheme, viewing it as a pressure tool against the working class and a means of exploiting workers, officials of the Islamic Republic, including Solat Mortazavi, the Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, defend the apprenticeship scheme, claiming that this type of skill training is not exploitation and, as workshop-based training, increases skills, productivity, and success in the job market after training. This is not the first time that officials of the Islamic Republic have sought to implement the apprenticeship scheme. This scheme was proposed during the presidencies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani, and they attempted to implement it, but due to widespread opposition from labor activists and unions, as well as protests from workers, it was set aside. Behrouz Farahani, a member of the Socialist Solidarity Group with Workers in Iran, residing in Paris, told Voice of America: "The issue of the apprenticeship scheme, which has been raised since Ahmadinejad's time, has no goal other than reducing the wages of educated individuals entering the job market for the first time." According to Farahani, "granting extensive powers to the master craftsman over the wage earner or apprentice imposes a highly unequal relationship on the apprentice, effectively leaving them defenseless and legalizing wages below the minimum wage." This labor activist believes that "this scheme, which ties wages to the agreement of the parties, in the absence of independent and comprehensive labor organizations, where job seekers have no authority or representative to negotiate and gain advantages from the employer, means a power balance entirely in favor of employers, and the outcome of negotiations will be nothing but giving more concessions from the job seeker to the employer." He stated that the government aims to exploit workers through this scheme, adding that the effort to approve and implement this scheme "displays the anti-worker and anti-rights nature of the Islamic Republic government. It should also be noted that such a policy will be welcomed by neoliberal economists who advocate for non-intervention of the government in labor and capitalist affairs. Deregulation in the workplace has always been one of the constant demands of this group, which is affiliated with major capitalists, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund." In recent months, alongside the murmurs of implementing the apprenticeship scheme, a number of workers from the Doroud cement factory in Lorestan province protested against the "anti-worker clauses" of the seventh development plan on June 13. Three days prior, workers from the Hepco factory in Arak had also protested against this plan. In connection with this scheme, Reza Shahabi, a imprisoned member of the board of directors of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, wrote in a statement: "The government has openly unveiled modern slavery and, in a sense, forced labor camps." The government of Ebrahim Raisi proposed in Article 15 of this bill that the wages of newly hired workers should be equivalent to half of the minimum monthly wage, and the years of service for new employees should be calculated based on half. The minimum monthly wage for workers subject to labor law, married with children, is about 8 million tomans per month. Meanwhile, statistics indicate that the cost of living for a household ranges between 20 to 31 million tomans.