The 113th annual conference of the “International Labour Organization, ILO” is being held at its headquarters in Geneva from June 3 to 13. Delegations from 178 countries around the world are participating in this annual conference.
As in previous years, representatives of employers, regime-affiliated yellow unions, and government officials are attending this year’s meeting. The organizers of this conference are well aware that despite the Islamic Republic’s membership in the organization and its formal declaration of commitment to implementing its resolutions, the conventions and recommendations of the ILO are consistently ignored and violated by the Islamic Republic.
A glance at the current situation of the Iranian working class including teachers and impoverished wage earners in just a few examples among hundreds of cases of violations of the human rights of these creators of wealth, prosperity, and culture in society, clearly demonstrates this reality:
Prevention and obstruction of workers from forming organizations and the violent suppression of independent labor unions. Suppression of the teachers’ union movement, imprisonment of its activists, widespread use of blank-signed contracts, recruitment through subcontracting companies resulting in a vast gap between the wages of formal and informal workers, job insecurity for contract and informal workers, and the exclusion of a large portion of workers from access to social insurance and unemployment insurance.
Pensions remaining unchanged despite inflation and the collapse in the value of the Islamic Republic’s currency, the collapse of the Social Security Organization due to the rise in informal employment which has significantly drained social security resources. Excluding the majority of workers from the coverage of the Islamic Republic’s “Labour Law,” a law which itself is based on principles of harsh exploitation and Islamic jurisprudence. Ignoring the demands of hardworking teachers, keeping them in absolute poverty, which directly affects students. Setting the official minimum wage at a level several times below the poverty line.
The devaluation of workers’ lives due to the lack of safety standards and workplace protections, and the rise in fatal workplace accidents. The commodification of healthcare, housing, education, and sanitation, along with the government’s evasion of all its sovereign responsibilities towards workers, cancellation or reduction of economic, legal, and welfare support, and as a result, the decline in the living standards of the working class. Severe discrimination in hiring female workers and depriving the masses of women of any kind of social protection. The intensification of the exploitation of internal migrants, the majority of whom are workers from regions inhabited by oppressed nationalities in Iran. Complete deprivation of rights for Afghan refugees who are exploited as cheap labor and denied any social security or official employment benefits. Exploitation of child labor and disregard for the living conditions of the army of working children.
The Islamic regime, by violently suppressing independent labor unions, teachers’ unions, and retirees’ organizations and denying their right to organize, eliminates their ability to protest in an organized and rightful manner. Currently, a number of labor activists are in prison for their protests and activism or are out on heavy bail. Therefore, representatives sent by regime-affiliated labor organizations do not have the legitimacy to represent the interests of the Iranian working class. They are spokespersons for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
We demand the full implementation of the International Labour Organization’s conventions, especially those related to the right to organize, strike, and collective bargaining. We demand an end to the torture and violation of the human rights of imprisoned workers and union activists and all political and ideological prisoners, and that all of them be immediately released. The executions, which have reached an unprecedented record this year, must be stopped, with most of the victims being those marginalized by the regime’s socio-economic policies and the oppressed and deprived nationalities of Iran such as the Kurdish and Baluch people.
The killings and harassment of Kolbars in Kurdistan and Sukhtbars in Baluchistan, who risk their lives to earn a bare minimum living due to unemployment, must end. The representatives of the Islamic Republic must be expelled from the International Labour Organization.
