The life situation of Iran’s workers indicates that the promises of government officials have failed and with the present situation, the government’s role in easing the life conditions of the workers and low-wage people is zero or negligible.
The country’s labor community, while lacking suitable jobs, is facing a staggering and daily increase in food prices, and the living conditions of this stratum who are classified as low wage earners have become even more difficult, and yet they are forced to ignore other needs of their lives, such as housing and clothing.
If until a few years ago only the relative increase in prices and the decrease in purchasing power of people were considered, especially the lower deciles of society in the country, now with the spread of COVID-19, many problems have added to the burden of workers’ problems, especially in the treatment sector.
These days, workers are experiencing many problems at once taking all the opportunities from them to have even a normal life. Problems such as lack of insurance, lack of shelter, unemployment, lack of reasonable and fixed salaries, lack of support, and reduced purchasing power.
The current wage of four million covers only one-third of the current cost of a normal life, so some workers are forced to turn to false and high-risk jobs, an action that can have many social consequences.
These conditions apply to retired and employed workers who are paid every month. There are many workers whose activities are seasonal and are constantly looking for temporary work throughout the year to earn their day in any way, which has led them to turn to false jobs.
In this situation, it should be asked whether the 39 percent increase in the minimum wage this year, which brings the workers’ minimum wages, including all wage benefits, to 4 million even considering the right of children which will rise to 4.2 million tomans, is enough to cover the cost of living? Can officials with astronomical wages manage themselves by receiving 4 million and run the lives of their families for even one or two days?
A key reason for the workers’ situation is the consortium of the mafia in Iran.
Import mafia, rent-seeking mafia, wealth mafia, power-reliant recommendation mafia, the mafia of safe and wealth living regions, these are the realities that statesmen are claiming to deal with them, but this is just a mirage in the regime’s mafia led government and the experience of past governments has shown that it this is not realized.
The reality is that the conflict-of-interest mafia is so powerful that they do not allow anyone to fight those who are themselves the source of corruption.
Put aside the misconception that corruption must be found in the bodies of ministries, government agencies, and corporations. These are the channels of corruption, and the roots of corruption must be searched in institutions affiliated with the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) who have captured the entire economy and now are taking the government too if we could call it a government at all.
But the phrase ‘searched’ is wrong because there is nothing hidden. The regime’s mafia is so powerful that they act openly and unafraid.
For example, when the head of the Mostazafan Foundation unveiled the corruption of some officials last year, he was threatened in such a way that he had no other choice but to repent on television and did so to keep himself safe.
The strange part is that the Mostazafan Foundation itself is one of the main sources of the regime’s wealth and corruption. This is what has become the conflict-of-interest mafia in Iran, which is not between ordinary people and small criminals but between the regime’s officials.
And the power-reliant recommendation mafia is now choosing and putting its desired people in the government’s positions, from friends to family members. Therefore no one should expect that the government in such a corrupt regime will be able to act independently.
Now back to the workers. In such a government, with the presence of such mafia, the expensiveness, and inflation that is increasing in the country’s economy in an unbridled way, how should the workers and minimum wage earners manage their lives?
Currently, workers are struggling to survive and undoubtedly are ashamed in front of their families.
