Reports from Iran indicate that nurses in Shiraz are continuing their strike for the sixth day, while nurses at public hospitals in several other cities have also gone on strike and held protests.
According to social media reports, on Saturday, August 10, nurses in Shiraz were on strike for the sixth consecutive day, leaving the hospitals in Shiraz devoid of nurses (except in the emergency department).
Meanwhile, a statement attributed to the striking nurses in Shiraz has been released, outlining their demands.
The statement highlights that these demands concern all nurses in Iran, including a call for the correction and revision of nursing pay, alignment of salaries with those of nurses in other sectors considering the similarity of work, proper implementation of the nursing tariff law, restoration of abolished benefits, and adjustment of the housing allowance in nursing contracts.
Other demands in the statement include the abolition of mandatory overtime, proper implementation of the productivity enhancement law, correct application of the law on arduous jobs allowing nurses to retire with 20 years of service, and the settlement of all outstanding financial dues to nurses.
On Saturday, healthcare workers gathered with their children in front of the Fasa University of Medical Sciences.
In Abadeh, a city in Fars Province, nurses at Khomeini Hospital also held a protest gathering.
In Zanjan, nurses and healthcare workers gathered at the University of Medical Sciences to protest against the “unfair payment of tariffs, benefits, and overtime.”
During their protest, they chanted slogans such as “Incompetent official – Resign, Resign.”
In a related development, nurses at Imam Sajjad Hospital in Tabriz went on strike to protest the non-payment of nursing tariffs.
In Lamerd, in the southern part of Fars Province, nurses were also on strike, with hospital departments operating with minimal nursing staff.
In previous years, nurses in various cities have also protested against their working conditions.
On July 3, ILNA news agency reported: “After witnessing that their wages had fallen to less than half of the poverty line due to the incomplete and unfair implementation of tariffs, nurses exercised their legal right and organized union gatherings in front of medical universities in various provinces.”
According to ILNA, “However, this minimal and legal demand for rights has, in some cases, led to pressure on nurses and their summons to disciplinary committees.”
The news agency added: “Contract nurses in the private sector face non-renewal of contracts and dismissal if they participate in protests, while official nurses under the Ministry of Health are sometimes summoned to disciplinary committees and punished.”
Regarding this, Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, the Secretary-General of the Nurses’ House, stated in this report that about 60 nurses in Kerman have been summoned, and nurses in various parts of the country have been summoned and threatened.
The Board of Directors of the Nursing Organization in Mashhad stated in a declaration: “Despite the severe shortage of nursing staff, we are witnessing the imposition of additional pressures and widespread discrimination in medical universities and hospitals, with the imposition of self-made tariffs, wages far below the poverty line, and mandatory overtime at 200,000 rials per hour.”
The Board of Directors of the Nursing Organization in Mashhad called on the Ministry of Health officials to immediately take actions such as “addressing the root causes of the nursing shortage,” “correcting the implementation of the tariff system,” “recording nursing services in the name of the nurses themselves,” “eliminating mandatory overtime,” “correcting the payment for overtime,” and ensuring “job, physical, and mental security for nurses.”
Ahmad Nejatian, the head of the National Nursing Organization, announced in remarks published in Iranian media that requests for nurse migration have doubled and emphasized that this issue is “a warning bell for the country’s health system.”
He said: “The requests for migration submitted to the National Nursing Organization have approximately doubled over a two-year period, from 2021 to 2023.”
