Unified Stance of Government and Employers on Wage Determination; Union Activist: They Are Attacking Workers' Lives

Following the meeting of the Wage Committee of the Supreme Labor Council on Tuesday, March 6, various comments have been made regarding the minimum wage for workers next year. Concurrently with this meeting, the employers' representative in this council and the government spokesman spoke in unison about the need to avoid the impact of wage increases on inflation rates. Setareh Rahmani, a union activist residing in London, pointed out the joint efforts of the government and employers to slightly increase wages, stating to Voice of America that they are attacking the lives and existence of workers. According to the state news agency ISNA, Asghar Ahaniha, the employers' representative in the Supreme Labor Council, said: "If we cannot solve the inflation problem, no matter how much we increase wages, it may be welcome at first, but inflation will erase it within a month or two. Therefore, we need to think fundamentally because we cannot maintain people's purchasing power with these methods." Also, according to the Tasnim news agency, Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the government spokesman, regarding the wage increase for next year, stated: "The government's policy, as one of the three pillars of the Supreme Labor Council, is to compensate for workers' costs while preserving the economic capacity of employers and also predicting the effects of cost compensation for inflation for workers, without being a factor for increasing inflation." Such statements have also been expressed by the government and employers in previous years, and currently, the result is a minimum wage of 8 million tomans for workers covered by labor law, married with children, against a living cost of 25 to 28 million tomans. Alongside discussions regarding the "impact of wage increases on inflation," it is worth mentioning the words of Ali Hossein Rayati Fard, Deputy of Labor Relations at the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, in August, who stated: "Expert reviews show that the inflationary impact of this increase is only 3 to 5 percent, and certainly liquidity in the market and various issues related to the dollar have a greater impact on inflation." However, this point has not prevented government and employers' officials from making statements. In this context, Davood Manzoor, the head of the Planning and Budget Organization and Deputy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said on Saturday, March 3: "Wages must be increased according to the economic conditions of the country and expected inflation." He claimed that inflation has gone out of control after the increase in workers' wages, adding: "What underpins our proposal and decision in the government for increasing wages is the expected inflation for next year." Nevertheless, Ali Nasiri Eghdam, a professor at Allameh Tabatabai University, said on Wednesday, March 8, to Mehr News Agency: "Increasing the minimum wage has not only not led to an increase in the general price level, as the cause of inflation is something else; it has also led to increased employment, as when you increase wages, the motivation to work also increases, and employers are motivated to have better employees." Setareh Rahmani, a labor activist residing in Britain, also stated in an interview with Voice of America regarding the minimum wage, which is determined at the end of each year by government and quasi-government labor organizations, employers' representatives, and the government (as the largest employer in Iran): "Interestingly, the workers' representative, the employer, and the government all express different opinions before deciding on the minimum wage, but in the end, they all forget the two components of inflation and the livelihood basket in Article 41 of the Labor Law and only agree on the amount of calories needed to survive below the poverty line." He also points out that "the percentage of wage costs, according to official statistical calculations, is reported to be between 5 to 10 percent of the total cost of a specific product." Mr. Rahmani, in part of this conversation, says: "In the absence of independent labor organizations that can meaningfully challenge the employer and the government, state media, using economists affiliated with security and government institutions, begin to create a puppet show and launch grand discussions claiming that increasing the minimum wage leads to rising inflation and weakens the economy, attempting to justify the imposition of poverty with verbal therapy." This labor activist adds: "If based on this reasoning, increasing wages leads to rising costs of people's livelihood and inflation rates, then in Western countries, where the average wage for six hours of an unskilled worker equals one month of an Iranian worker's wage, inflation should skyrocket." He believes that "the anti-worker actions of the government do not only end with wage suppression amid accumulated inflation over the years and the imposition of poverty on wage earners, but also attack workers' existence through workforce adjustments, deregulation, attempts to regionalize wages, reducing safety costs, and white and temporary contracts." The government has begun to murmur against Article 41 of the Labor Law; the Deputy of Raisi: We have limitations for increasing workers' wages. Promises to hold wage meetings from this week; workers: 42 percent inflation and a 25 million toman livelihood basket should be the basis. Warning from a member of parliament about a "huge wave of discontent" among workers; labor activist: An explosive situation has arisen. Inflation of 38 percent is higher than the annual inflation of food items. Late holding of Supreme Labor Council meetings; union activist: They want to take away workers' opportunity to protest. The price index of 10 food items has risen in a year; the inflation of red meat was 93 percent.