Thousands of workers protest against draft Labour Law in Iran

Thousands of workers gathered in front of the Iranian regime's 'parliament' on November 20 to protest against the new draft Labour Law being debated by the 'parliamentarians'.

According to the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA), 3,000 people with placards and banners gathered outside 'parliament' to protest against the new labour bill. On the 21st anniversary of the Labour Law's enactment the workers protested against the new bill which makes provisions for mass layoffs of workers and makes the minimum wage level dependent on the economic situation.

The Iranian regime's Labour Law was enacted on November 20 1990 (29 Aban 1369). On that day the 'Third Parliament' of the Islamic Republic of the Iran (IRI) passed a law that 'amended' the 1958 (1337) law passed by the Shah's regime. The 1958 law, enacted during Manuchehr Eghbal's premiership, was drafted in consultation with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The IRI's 1990 'amendments' removed provisions for strikes, protests and setting up trade unions from this law.

The new bill, drafted two years ago, sets out to reduce workers' rights in Iran even further. It will represent a huge setback of several decades and make Iranian workers more exploited and shackled than most of their sisters and brothers in other countries.

An amendment to Article 21 will allow bosses to sack workers en masse. Furthermore, Article 27 will give the Disciplinary Committee the right to fire workers - where the employers make up the majority of committee members and will control the compensation and bonuses awarded to sacked workers.

For workers who hold on to their jobs the draft bill proposes a change to the definition of the minimum wage and a reduction in their New Year bonus to a maximum of 400,000 tomans ($367). The justification for this change is "the country's economic situation".

Even some of regime's top supporters are opposing the draft bill! Abbas Vatanpoor, the former representative of Iran's employers at the ILO, has said that the poverty line rose by 20 per cent in the first six months of the year and stood at 1,600,000 tomans ($1470) in Iran's large cities. In September ILNA reported that he had predicted that by the end of the year the poverty line will reach 2,000,000 tomans ($1837) a month.

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
25 November 2011