Rejection of Ebrahim Raisi's Claim; Government Statistics on 'Reviving Idle Units' Are Not Accurate

The Vice President of the Supreme Association of Employers' Unions reacted to Ebrahim Raisi's claim regarding the revival of idle units, stating that 'the government's statistics in this regard are not accurate and many units are laying off workers.' Mohammad Attaradian told ILNA news agency that the 'Business Emergency' and the systems the government has considered for reviving production units have not yielded significant results so far. These remarks were in response to the display of the Business Emergency initiative in free and special economic zones in November of this year, as well as Ebrahim Raisi's statements in July. Raisi claimed that 'the revival of 18,000 job opportunities has occurred through the revival of 5,000 idle production units.' Reports from Farvardin 1400 (April 2021) also indicated that the head of the National Monitoring Center for Employment Policies and Programs stated that the establishment of the Business Emergency would save businesses and consequently prevent layoffs. Attaradian described the conditions of production units, stating: 'Production and even service units in the country are at risk of layoffs, and this problem exists for almost all units.' This employer union activist criticized the claimed actions, emphasizing that 'the impact of solutions like the Business Emergency is more about entertaining employers than solving real problems.' According to him, we have not heard that employers' issues have been resolved in a real and tangible way. This union activist identified the lack of liquidity as a problem for many units and questioned, 'Does the government have money to give to businesses?' Attaradian stated that the government's job creation statistics are 'superficial' and 'on one hand, they say we have created this many new jobs, but on the other hand, many workers are becoming unemployed, so these statistics are not very trustworthy.'