Escalation of Protests Against Retirement Age Increase; Media: New Parliament Resolution is a 'Adjustment Blade' on the 'Underprivileged'

Despite several weeks having passed since the approval of a provision in the 'Seventh Development Plan' bill by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, which increases the retirement age for Iranians, protests against it continue. A labor news agency, 'ILNA', referred to its implementation as a 'blade of adjustment on the frail bodies of the underprivileged'. The report stated that the 'increase in retirement age and service years' worsens the situation of pension funds, although it may have negligible short-term effects, it exacerbates the 'crisis of imbalance' in the long term. Accordingly, with the sudden and unilateral increase in retirement age and service years, previous agreements between insured individuals (workers and wage earners) and fund management (the government) were disregarded with a 'simple approval'. On November 28, members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly approved a provision stating that 'to reduce the imbalance of pension funds' and strengthen the funds' ability to fulfill their assigned duties, 'from two to five months' will be added to the employment years of insured individuals 'for each year'. Based on this, even insured individuals who have five, ten, or fifteen years of premium payment history and were 'supposed' to retire at a specific time now have to 'work more and retire later' due to the 'efforts to resolve the imbalance of the funds'. This resolution faced numerous protests, to the extent that Hossein Habibi, the secretary of the Coordination Council of Islamic Labor Councils of Tehran Province, announced on December 2 that a petition with '30,000 signatures from workers and employees' of 100 production units in the province was submitted to the 'Guardian Council' in protest against the increase in retirement age, requesting its rejection. Nevertheless, Vali Esmaeili, the head of the Social Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, on December 3 indicated the possibility of the government institution 'Guardian Council' aligning with the Islamic Republic government to 'reject' the resolution for equalizing retirees' salaries 'due to lack of financial resources'. Although the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare of the Islamic Republic defended this resolution on December 1 and described it as 'reforms', two labor activists on December 2 stated in an interview with Voice of America that various governments of the Iranian regime are the main cause of the crisis in pension funds. Alireza Navaei, a labor activist residing in Paris, pointed out that 'to solve the crisis, the roots must be found and then solutions provided', adding that 'the crisis in pension funds, including the largest one, the Social Security Fund, was created by the governments of the Islamic Republic'. Setar Rahmani, a member of the union of teachers and university professors in the UK and residing in London, also commented on the new status of the Social Security Fund, stating that this fund is trapped in 'super crises' from which 'exiting' under the current policies is approaching 'complete bankruptcy'.