Retirees in Iran are going through turbulent times; from being confined to their homes due to the spread of the coronavirus to being prohibited from seeing their children and relatives. But in a situation where the spread of this virus has also affected the income and expenses of workers and has added to the number of poor people in the country, it is the retirees who are bearing the brunt of rising prices. Despite having worked and struggled for 30 years, this population, which according to statistics includes at least 5.5 million people, is now preoccupied with financial concerns instead of enjoying their retirement and spending time with their grandchildren and family.
Although the coronavirus may be seen as the final blow to the already weak financial situation of retirees, the real blow was the increase in gasoline prices in November of last year. In this regard, the Retirees’ Union, which is made up of retirees from various organizations such as the Social Security, the military, and the steel industry, had declared

There is a difference between retired and retired.

According to statistics, the lives of nearly eight million people in Iran are directly or indirectly dependent on retirement benefits. This means that with a population of 83 million in the country, at least 10% of this population rely on retirement funds for their livelihood and financial support.

Among them, if we separate the calculations for national and military retirement funds, the largest population of retirees and pensioners in the country are covered by the Social Security Organization and are commonly referred to as Social Security retirees: more than 3.5 million people.

The main difference between national and military retirees and Social Security retirees is not in their numbers, which is a huge gap, but in the amount of retirement benefits they receive. Therefore, while the average retirement benefits for national retirees in the past year (98) were 2.9 million tomans and for military retirees 3.3 million tomans, the average benefits set for them in the current year are 3.8 million and 4.2

21% increase means nothing!

The High Council of Labor, in the final days of the current year’s Farvardin month, after more than a month of delay and without considering the opinions of workers’ representatives in the High Council of Labor, and despite their opposition to setting the base rate and minimum wage for workers at one million and 850 thousand tomans, only agreed to a 21% increase in the base wages of workers for the year 99. This means that with the inclusion of seniority pay, housing allowance, child allowance, spouse allowance, etc., the salary of an ordinary worker will reach two million and 800 thousand tomans per month.

The reason for the workers’ opposition to this amount, apart from its inconsistency with the realities and economic conditions of the society, was the non-compliance with Article 41 of the Labor Law. According to this law, the High Council of Labor is obliged to determine the minimum wage for workers every year based on the “inflation rate announced by the Central

What is the problem?

While according to Article 41 of the Labor Law, the basket of livelihood and inflation rate are the two main factors in determining the minimum wage for workers, which directly affects the minimum pension received by Social Security retirees, no attention has been paid to these two rates this year and despite a 41% inflation rate, the minimum wage has only increased by 21%.

On the other hand, although Article 111 of the Social Security Law explicitly states that the minimum base salary for pensioners and retirees of this organization should not be less than the rate set for minimum wage workers, this 21% increase has not been implemented in practice for the retirees of this organization.

Ali Asghar Bayat, the head of the High Council of Retired and Pensioner Workers of the Social Security Organization, criticized the officials and the government for their neglect of the “economic pressures and shrinking of the table of retirees and pensioners” on June 7th of this year, citing the violation of the law

Notes:
1 – Farhangestan Newspaper – News Code: 39420