Protests by South Pars Workers Over Unfulfilled Promises by Officials and Flaws in Job Classification Scheme

A member of the Supreme Council of the South Pars Workers' Union has reported the 'indifference' of the South Pars refinery officials to the situation of '80 percent' of the workforce, which includes 'technical, operational, and specialized' workers. Alireza Mirghafari, a member of the Supreme Council of Workers' Unions and Chairman of the Board of the Gas Refinery Workers' Unions in Bushehr Province, told the ILNA news agency: 'We have been pursuing a revision of the job classification scheme for nearly a year and a half.' He added: 'Our objections to the scheme were that the annual ranking was not implemented and job evaluation and practical job assessment were not conducted at the workplace.' Workers at the South Pars gas complex have repeatedly protested their job and union conditions in recent months. Earlier this week, workers at this complex gathered in protest against the 'failure of officials to fulfill their promises regarding their demands.' Two oil workers' organizations also announced on Saturday, December 4, that informal workers (third-party contractors) and support staff at the South Pars gas refinery had gathered in protest against 'low wages and unmet demands.' The Chairman of the Board of the Gas Refinery Workers' Unions in Bushehr Province stated that the job classification scheme implemented has job descriptions that are general and lack detail, adding that 'this leads to various interpretations and effectively renders job descriptions that could prevent the exploitation of labor ineffective.' On November 20, workers from the National Industrial Steel Group in Ahvaz went on strike, marched, and gathered in protest against the 'non-implementation of the job classification scheme and unpaid wages.' According to published reports, the protesters criticized the management of the company with slogans such as 'Hosseini Hosseini, their slogan, their pride is theft.' The implementation of the job classification scheme and its execution details is one of the most controversial issues in the labor sector in Iran, which remains a demand of workers despite widespread protests. With the expansion of livelihood protests in Iran, several economists, including Masoud Nili, Davood Soori, and Zahra Kavyani, criticized the economic governance of the Islamic Republic over the past four decades, attributing it to the increase in the population living below the poverty line in Iran. Furthermore, economist Farshad Momeni, relying on 'official data,' stated that nearly one in three Iranians is 'absolutely poor,' and for the first time in 100 years, the population of the poor in Iran will double in less than three years. Additionally, Jamshid Asadi, an economist, predicted in an interview with VOA that the budget plan for the year 1403 will lead to further poverty and inflation in Iran.