Protest Gathering of Tehran Vahed Bus Drivers

Iran Labor Report

On October 10, more than 200 metropolitan bus drivers from Tehran and Provinces Vahed company staged a protest gathering lasting four and a half hours by main city and city council offices.

The drivers were protesting not having received the 10 percent paid to all city employees and those covered by the city like the fire fighters, etc for becoming city employees. While the said amount has been paid to other city employees, for the Vahed bus workers, being part of the city companies, it has not. The workers started their petitions and protests in March 2010 and still waiting for any responses from the city and Vahed officials.

According to the reports by Free Union of Iranian Workers, the workers were directed to the mosque at the City offices at 11:30 to wait for the officials. After half an hour of waiting and no show by the officials, the workers turned their protest back again to the street resulting in the general manager of human resources at Vahed to appear among the workers declaring that the ten percent due workers has been ratified and is going through final stages to be paid monthly for a period of five months. He also mentioned that the workers will be entitled to additional housing benefits starting in five months.

The workers ended their protest declaring that they will show with higher numbers if the general manager’s talks are not turned into action.

Earlier, 59 Shiraz bus drivers staged a gathering by city Islamic Council offices protesting not having received their dues following their forced retirement in 2002.