Multiple Labor Organizations: Minimum Wage Should Not Be Less Than 60 Million Tomans

Several labor organizations, teachers, retirees, nurses, and women issued a joint statement regarding next year's wages, emphasizing that a wage lower than the actual cost of living is a "crime," and announced that as a first step, the minimum wage "should not be less than 60 million tomans." These organizations criticized the situation, stating that "this year is more critical and in red status than any other year," and wrote: "The merciless monster of inflation has turned life into a nightmare for us." The statement noted: "Considering dollar costs and the tsunami of rising prices, the permanent devaluation of wages, preventing wage increases according to inflation throughout the year, and postponing it to a single time at the end of the year renders any percentage increase ineffective and invalid in advance." Previously, Hossein Habibi, a member of the board of directors of the Supreme Council of Islamic Labor Councils, announced on March 4 that "the total cost of living, considering rent and living essentials, is 70 million tomans." Currently, the minimum wage for workers covered by labor law, married with children, along with benefits, is 10 million and 900 thousand tomans. This is while the same amount is not paid to workers who are not covered by labor law. The signatories pointed out that workers and other wage earners "face various crises of medicine and treatment, clean air, electricity and gas, and the most basic human needs" apart from food, clothing, housing, and education costs, adding: "The confiscation of community resources and capacities by the owners of power and wealth has led to the deprivation of the majority of society." The signatory organizations emphasized that their insistence on determining and increasing real wages is an effort for welfare, equality, and a better life for today and for the future in defense of their children, adding: "We witness daily the increasing number of child laborers and street children and the rising statistics of prostitution and suicide due to the struggle for a piece of bread." They referred to the performance of the Supreme Labor Council of the Islamic Republic, stating that this council "like every year, without the presence and will of the working class in wage negotiations, behind closed doors, auctions off the value of our labor with the criteria of dry bread and a worn-out garment." The statement emphasizes that "calculating and determining the cost of the living basket based on standardized life needs today is not a difficult task" and states: the budget that should be for the welfare and improvement of people's lives is spent on dozens of institutions and entities unrelated to the majority's life and also on costly repressive apparatuses and the continuation of their plundering. The signatories pointed out: "The adoption of unrelated and anti-public interest regional and international policies has placed our lives in unbearable and explosive conditions." They continued in their statement: "The share of state media from the public budget in the year 1404 is determined to be more than the budget of 10 ministries and about 35 trillion tomans" and emphasized: "Against this oppressive system, we demand our rights with the cry 'when it's our turn, the treasury is empty.'" In part of this statement, criticism was made of the fact that "thousands of young girls and boys are taken out of the coverage of labor law with tricks of agreed or regional wages so that they are not even paid the minimum wage and that part-time and service-purchased teachers are paid below the approved minimum wage." The signatory organizations emphasized: "This situation must end" and wrote: "We only recognize the minimum wage in wage negotiations with the presence of real and independent representatives of the working class according to the real costs of the living basket and its increase throughout the year" and "the minimum wage must be determined based on the real costs of the living basket and be able to meet our natural life needs with the indicators of today's advanced human societies, and this should be a basis for our departure and bargaining for the minimum wage." These organizations added: "Determining wages and salaries based on the real costs of the living basket and ending poverty and slavery is the demand of all people" and announced: "We will fight with widespread protests and stand against repression to claim our rights." Regarding the determination of the minimum wage for next year, they emphasized: "Our specific demand today is that in the face of dollar costs, the minimum wage must also be calculated based on the rise in the dollar rate and should not be less than 60 million tomans as a first step and should increase according to the inflation rate." Access to "free healthcare, free education, and necessary facilities for housing" is among the other demands of these organizations. The statement was signed by the "Union of Retirees, the Association of Electricity and Metal of Kermanshah, the Teachers' Union Challenge of Iran, the Council of Iranian Retirees, the Council for Organizing Protests of Contract Oil Workers, the Council for Organizing Protests of Informal Oil Workers (Third Parties), the Coordinating Council of Nurses' Protests, Teachers' Union activists in Alborz Province, the Voice of Iranian Women, and the Justice Seekers Institution." Jafar Azimzadeh: The minimum wage of workers has been frozen against inflation. Criticisms of the Minister of Labor's "invention" for determining wages based on profession continue. Criticism of the wage plan based on profession and province: More tension will arise. Wages based on profession and province; union activist: It is to the detriment of workers.