Submission of the Seventh Development Plan Bill to Parliament; Raisi: Previous Plans Were Implemented by 'About 40 Percent'

Ebrahim Raisi, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, submitted the Seventh Development Plan bill to Parliament on Sunday. After delivering the bill, he stated that previous development plans were implemented by 'about 40 percent' with an optimistic outlook. Raisi presented the Seventh Development Plan bill amid widespread protests following the release of its draft. However, it remains unclear whether the objections raised against the Seventh Development Plan have been addressed or if this plan will become one of the main challenges in various sectors. One contentious area of this bill is related to labor, where, following intensified criticism from labor unions labeling the plan as 'anti-labor,' the Minister of Labor announced the possibility of removing some 'anti-labor' provisions from the Seventh Development Plan. Solat Mortazavi mentioned that 'I think articles 15 and 16 have been removed in the final revision of the Seventh Development Plan bill' and 'this issue is probably no longer on the agenda.' However, it is uncertain whether this statement by the Minister of Labor has been realized, as labor activists argue that the mentioned provisions could change the relationship between workers and employers to 'modern slavery.' According to media reports, Article 15 of the Seventh Development Plan allows employers to pay half of the approved minimum wage during the first three years of employment and to unilaterally terminate contracts at any time. Article 16 emphasizes that employers are allowed to pay individuals with special conditions, who are under the coverage of the Committee for Relief and Welfare, less than the approved minimum wage. Another provision of this bill that has raised concerns is the gradual increase of the retirement age. According to Davood Manzoor, the head of the Planning and Budget Organization, the aim of this decision is to 'solve the imbalance problem of pension funds.' In response to the news of raising the retirement age, some individuals are worried about the future of pension funds and consider insurance payments as futile. Some groups also oppose the increase in retirement age. In the area of disability, objections were raised against the Seventh Development Plan, leading to a protest gathering by disabled individuals on June 7 in front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. A defender of 'disability rights' described the Seventh Development Plan as having an approach of 'removing beneficiaries from the support cycle' and stated that based on this plan, 20 percent of beneficiaries would be removed from the support cycle annually. Behrouz Marvati, the director of the Disabled Campaign, called this action 'a great injustice by the government' within the Seventh Development Plan and emphasized that after 45 years of the existence of welfare services, no infrastructure has been provided in this area. As of the time of writing this report, the final text of the Seventh Development Plan bill has not been published, and it is unclear whether the objections raised in recent weeks by experts in the media still exist in the final text or if amendments have been made to the final version of the bill.