2022 was one of the most challenging years for workers in Iran as Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet set the agenda for an all-out attack on the livelihood and security of workers and retirees. Zamaneh Media’s fifth Annual Labor Report, which covers issues related to Iranian workers’ rights in 2022 is now available for download.
In 2022, the halting of the nuclear talks, and the continuation of sanctions by the United States and its allies provided a pretext for the Iranian government to advance the policies of price liberalization faster. The impact of these policies was shown in the continuous fall in the value of the national currency (rial) which lost nearly 60% of its value in one year.
The 13th government cabinet, which had previously opposed two bills to improve the condition of workers and retirees under the excuse of the budget deficit, included a series of poverty-producing policies in the budget for the Iranian calendar year 1401 (March 21, 2022-March 21, 2023).
The removal of the “preferred currency program” which provides a subsidized government dollar value for essential goods like food and drugs, the liberalization of food and livestock prices in the spring of 2022, raised food inflation to around 100%, the price of medical services was increased by 19%-40%, housing, and rent inflation by 40%, In the spring of 2022, one of the most unprecedented food price surges was recorded in Iran.
The Ministry of Cooperation, Labor, and Social Welfare revealed in a report that the per capita poverty line increased by at least 50% and further estimated another 70% growth by the end of the Iranian calendar year 1401 (March 2023). In such a situation, the government prevented the increase of workers’ wages based on the subsistence basket. The government ignored the request of the workers to revise the minimum wage, so the gap between the salary and the cost of living in the first half of the year reached 8 to 10 million tomans (1 USD =~ 40,000 tomans).
These economic conditions are even worse for informal workers such as peddlers, construction workers, porters, kulbars, and sukhtbars. The government’s promise to have construction workers insured by the end of the year remained unfulfilled. Implementing the “relocation of Peddlers” plan in different cities including Tehran, Isfahan,Tabriz, Amol, Borujerd, Gorgan, Karaj, and Qazvin lead to violence. Municipal officers attacked and forcibly removed informal workers from the streets.
The managers of Tehran Municipality said that with the relocation plan and forcing them to register on the designated website, they have reduced the number of peddlers from about 20,000 to 30,000 to 5,800 in Tehran, the capital.
The violent attack against informal workers who are now the majority of the Iranian workforce was worse for Sukhtbars and Kulbars. In Sistan and Baluchestan province, Sukhtbars were also targeted by border guards and 105 Baluch Sukhtbars were shot and killed in 2022 by government forces. In the Western borders of Iran, 88 Kulbars died while working and 29 of them were killed by the border guards.
Due to severe internet filtering, online businesses suffered a lot in the last season of 2022. The former secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace said in the summer of 2022, “2,400,000 businesses in the country operate on Instagram,” which are primarily small businesses. The Chamber of Commerce, however, announced the number of businesses using the Instagram platform to be around 9 million. A survey showed that in the first two months of nationwide protests in September 2022, 50% of online businesses faced a 50% drop in sales.
The worsening of workers’ conditions leads to protests among workers who work with more secure contacts. In 2022, workers experienced a lot of economic and police pressure. At the beginning of the year, the government once again imposed wage suppression on workers. Teachers, retirees, municipal contract workers, energy sector workers, medical staff, public transportation workers, and industrial/manufacturing workers often rallied at work or on the street in 2022. As the protests became more widespread, the government started a police crackdown and massive arrests of union activists and workers’ rights defenders. The government arrested many labor union activists and teachers. In different periods, Zamaneh was able to document the names of more than 300 trade union activists, and workers’ rights defenders, and arrested workers based on reports published by the Teachers’ Union Coordination Council, a source close to workers and labor organizations
The government continued to crack down on labor protests. More than Hundreds of teachers were arrested and jailed, summoned by security forces or the Judiciary during union protests which began in September 2020 and continued until May 2022. The widespread arrests of labor union activists in the spring and summer of 2022 aimed to prevent protests against the liberalization of the prices of essential goods. The scope of these protests did not expand, but a few months later, in September 2022, the murder of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini by the government marked the beginning of protests that continued until the end of the year. During these protests, more than 300 workers and teachers were arrested and 500 people were killed by government agents.
Four protesters named Mohammad Mehdi Karami, Majidreza Rahnavard, Mohsen Shekari, and Mohammad Hosseini, who were all informal workers arrested in relation to the Woman, Life, Freedom nationwide protests, were executed.
In the last five years, Zamaneh has published 23 labor reports, five special newsletters (about nurses, wage suppression, contract workers in the oil industry, teachers, and suppression of union activities), and four labor yearbooks in Persian and English. You can download Zamaneh Media’s labor reports from our labor page:
