ranian workers who have gone months without pay may have only two months of financial resilience left without government intervention, a labor representative warned on Thursday, as wage arrears mount following conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic.
“The country will certainly face significant unrest among workers by the end of the summer if the current trend continues,” Akbar Shokat, executive secretary of the Workers’ House in Qom province, told the ILNA news agency.
Many workers, according to ILNA, who were temporarily laid off during the conflict and turned to jobs such as ride-hailing to make ends meet have since been recalled to factories, only to find that wages for June and July remain unpaid. Having returned to work, they are also no longer eligible for unemployment benefits.
Most Iranian workers, Shokat said, already live below the poverty line after years of wage suppression, leaving them with little capacity to absorb further economic pressure.
Employers accused of withholding wages
Shokat accused some employers of exploiting the current economic conditions by reducing production and delaying wage payments despite having sufficient raw materials and finished goods in storage.
“Some employers are taking advantage of the current situation,” he said, adding that businesses which accumulated wealth over previous decades had a moral responsibility not to shift the burden of the crisis onto workers.
He urged the government to introduce emergency economic measures, including customs exemptions for imported raw materials and bank financing for manufacturers, to help companies continue operations and prevent further wage delays.
Shokat also called for legal action against employers who withhold workers’ wages while stockpiling goods.
Strikes spread across sectors
ILNA has reported a growing number of labor protests in recent weeks.
On June 23, the agency reported that 1,600 workers at Tabriz Machinery Group stopped work after two months without pay, demanding payment of wages owed for May and June.
Earlier, healthcare workers in Islam-Abad-e Gharb of Kermanshah province gathered to protest low wages, delayed payments and worsening living conditions, criticizing what they described as unequal pay across Iran’s health system and incomes that remain well below the poverty line.
Economic pressures deepen
The labor concerns come as Iran’s economy faces mounting pressure following the conflict with the United States. The rial has weakened sharply against foreign currencies in the open market, with the US dollar trading above 1.91 million rials.
Separately, Saeed Shojaei, deputy planning minister at the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, told the Ettelaat newspaper on July 15 that financial losses from electricity shortages affecting industry are expected to increase from about 3,030 trillion rials in the 2024 to 4,730 trillion rials in 2025.
Shojaei warned that if current conditions persist, unemployment could increase during the second half of the year. -iranintl