More than 700 Sepahan Cement Factory Workers Strike

Iran Labor Report

More than 700 Sepahan Cement Factory workers have been on strike since July 7. The workers employed by intermediary contracting companies at the plant are protesting discrimination in seniority and productivity benefits payments between the permanent and contracting workers.

According to Gholami, a contracting workers representative at the plant, talking to Iranian News Agency (ILNA): “Sepahan Cement Factory employs 1100 permanent and contracting workers. The protesting workers have conveyed their grievances to the state, county, and high office of Labor, Welfare, and Social Security. We have hired lawyers to pursue our demands.”

According to Ahmad Reza Moeini, the head of the Islamic Labor Council Centers in the city of Isfahan: “More than 700 of the workers at the factory are working under contractors and as mentioned several times before, these intermediary companies do not pay the workers dues.”

Moeini finds the main demand of the workers to be receiving wages and benefits according to occupational classification and added: “Unfortunately, while two thirds of the Sepahan Cement Factory workers are suffering from these types of discrimination, the tasks by the permanent and contracted workers are the same and discrimination among those doing same jobs is not acceptable.”

Moeini believes that based on the occupational classification, all those doing the same special job, for example being an electrical technician, in the same production facility should benefit from the same wage and benefits. In other words, the factory should pay the workers the wages based on what they do and perform and not the type of employment relation they are involved.

The second demand of the workers according to Moeini is the implementation of workers productivity law and has emphasized that as the non-permanent workers contracts are renewed every year, there should be no differences between these workers and permanent employees and all should receive benefits based on their efforts and performances.

The head of Isfahan Islamic Labor Council Centers believes that the solution is signing direct contracts at the factory and mentioned that the workers have been on work stoppage and strike for ten days over discrimination and not receiving their full benefits and legal rights.

According to Moeini, the contracting companies receive full benefits and wages for each worker from the employer and only pay part of that to the workers. He asked for implementation of occupation classification and productivity benefits law at the factory.

The workers have at numerous times complained to the Labor Office and the Social Commission at Iranian Parliament but have not received any resolutions.

The head of the Labor, Welfare, and Social Security Office in the city of Mobarake has been assigned by the state Labor Offices to oversee the situation at Sepahen Cement Factory. Mohammad Reza Eslami, in turn, has said: “There are about 700 workers at Sepahan under Contracting Companies and are not involved in the protests; it is only 150 workers at the loading department.” He further said that: “there are no proofs and we are officials and can say all the documents and indications show that the workers legal benefits have been fully paid. There is no rationale for elimination of the contracting companies.” According to Eslami, “some of the demands of the Sepahan Cement Factory are not lawful, like expecting to sign contracts directly with the employer and eliminating their intermediary contracting companies. Because this is a private company and is not in the realm of the government decree on elimination of the contracting companies.”

Eslami did not find the differences between the wages of the permanent and contracting workers to be discriminatory and emphasized that: “this is not only an issue with Sepahan Cement and can not be denied that the differences between permanent and temporary and even contracting workers exist everywhere in the world and while the employment categories are different, no illegal activity has taken place.”

Eslami did not find any discrimination among workers performing the same tasks not receiving the same benefits and said: “no right has been denied them and not only they have received all the minimum benefits in the labor law but also they have received more than many workers at other production facilities.”

According to Eslami, “Direct contract between the contracting workers and Sepahan Cement is costly and the employer should not be forced to it as it may lead to other consequences such as lay offs and financial difficulties.”

The permanant workers at Sepahan Cement receive monthly productive benefits and the yearly productivity benefits are also given to the permanent and direct contract employees. They also benefit from other benefits such as travel perks, etc.