Seven hundred workers at the Sepahan Cement factory in Isfahan have entered their third day of strike to protest their unfavourable legal and working conditions.
ILNA reports that since the workers’ efforts to satisfy their demands through the Ministry of Labour have yielded no results, 700 workers have stopped work in the past three days and have been gathering for protests on factory grounds.
The report indicates that the cement plant has 1,100 contract and permanent workers who produce 13,000 tons of cement each month.
The workers have hired a lawyer to pursue their demands for better conditions, pay and benefits with the judiciary.
The head of the Isfahan Islamic Work Associations, Ahmadreza Moini, told ILNA that more than 700 of the plant’s workers are contracted through brokers, and these brokers are not paying the workers their proper wages.
Iranian media also report that more than 100 telephone information centre workers in Shiraz have entered their fifth day of strike to protest new contracts with lower pay and benefits.
The head of Iranian unions recently told ILNA that permanent jobs are in swift decline, and 85 percent of the manufacturing workforce is currently on contract.
