The crisis of unpaid wages in Iran’s production and service sectors has intensified. Amid the current military conflict between the United States and the Iranian regime, many workers have gone months without receiving their salaries and, according to reports, now have only two months of “economic resilience” remaining.
In recent weeks, some businesses and companies that had previously laid off employees have recalled workers to resume operations. However, these workers are now facing unpaid salaries for the Iranian months of Khordad and Tir (May 22 to July 22) and an accumulation of overdue wages.
Crisis of Unpaid Wages for Workers in Southern Iran Amid Escalating War Conditions
According to a report published by the state-run ILNA news agency on Thursday, July 23, workers who had turned to jobs such as driving for ride-hailing services to avoid unemployment have now returned to factories but remain deprived of their legally mandated wages and are no longer covered by unemployment insurance.
Exploitation of the Crisis and the Risk of Social Unrest
Akbar Shokat, executive secretary of the Workers’ House organization in Qom Province, warned in an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency that the overwhelming majority of Iran’s working-class lives below the poverty line because of years of “wage suppression” and has very little ability to withstand economic pressures.
He stressed that if the current trend continues and no special economic intervention takes place, the country will certainly face “significant unrest” among workers by the end of the summer.
ILNA had previously reported on the spread of strikes by workers across various industrial and service sectors in different cities throughout Iran.
On June 23, ILNA reported that 1,600 workers at the Tabriz Machine Manufacturing Group went on strike in protest over the non-payment of two months of wages.
The workers stopped working in what they described as an effort to “pursue their legal rights” and demanded payment of their overdue wages for the Iranian months of Ordibehesht and Khordad (April 21 to June 21).
Employees of the Eslamabad-e Gharb Health Center also held a protest on June 22 over inadequate salaries, benefits, and worsening living conditions.
The employees strongly criticized the “payment delays and inequalities” in the country’s healthcare system and said their income was “insignificant compared to the poverty line.”
Referring to the conduct of some employers, the executive secretary of the Workers’ House in Qom Province said: “Some employers are exploiting the current situation. Despite having raw materials and goods in storage, they reduce production capacity and do not pay their workers’ wages.”
Shokat noted that employers who have “accumulated wealth from a safe position” in the decades following the Iran-Iraq War are now morally obligated to bear part of the cost of maintaining stability and should not shift the burden of the crisis onto workers.
Government Inaction in the Face of the Crisis in Production Units
Livelihood crises are worsening by the day as, following the escalation of hostilities between the United States and the Iranian regime, foreign currency exchange rates in Iran’s free market have risen sharply, with the U.S. dollar surpassing previous records to exceed 1.93 million rials.
At the same time, concerns have been heightened by the Iranian regime officials’ and members of the Majlis’ (parliament) focus on security and military tensions while systematically neglecting the country’s growing domestic crises.
In another part of his remarks, Shokat criticized the inaction of responsible institutions and called for a fundamental review of the government’s economic policies under wartime conditions.
He said the government should assist production units through strategic management, customs exemptions for importing raw materials, and the provision of bank loans in order to prevent delays in workers’ wage payments.
The labor activist also stressed the need for legal action against “so-called employers” who engage in hoarding and fail to pay workers’ wages.
The combination of unstable wartime conditions, runaway inflation, and the sharp rise in exchange rates, coupled with official inaction, has exposed the social, food, and psychological security of working-class and retired households to one of the most serious threats of recent decades.
