Retirement in Iran: Bitterness Instead of Leisure

The vast majority of retired workers are living on a meager salary of only ten days a month. Their right is to have their pensions equalized, not to have to run around in old age to cover the deficit in household expenses.

On February 12, 2017, during the opening of a hospital in Ghaemshahr, Mazandaran, a retired worker interrupted the Minister of Labor's speech. When he was handed the microphone, he spoke about his own problems; about the salary of 1 million and 500 thousand tomans for a family of four, the high cost of medicines, the shortage of hospital beds, and the promises of the Ministry of Labor and the Social Security Organization. The minister kissed him, the crowd sent greetings, and the complaining worker's words were left unfinished.

When the Yurt mine exploded in May 2017, burying 22 people 1,800 meters deep in the ground, 100 retired miners dared to say that their employer owed each of them more than 10 million Tomans and had put their wage claims against retirement expenses.

When about 400 retired Kian Tire workers gathered in front of the Ministry of Industry and Mines on December 17, 2017, to say that they had been retired for six years but had not received their end-of-service pay, special guards were heavily present in the compound. Each of them demanded the equivalent of 80 to 100 million tomans from the factory.

When on December 9, a group of retired steel industry workers from different cities and provinces came to Tehran for the umpteenth time and gathered in front of the parliament, the representatives were discussing the proposed budget for 2018. The retirees demanded self-governance of the steel fund, obliging the government to fulfill its obligations, and pay salaries and medical expenses for this group.

These examples are a reflection of the wage, welfare, and medical conditions of workers who need peace of mind in their old age, but whose main concern is the household budget deficit and the accumulation of debt.

Alireza Mahjoub, Secretary General of the Workers' House and a member of parliament, says: "When the Social Security Law was written, life expectancy was 49 years, and today it has reached 73 years. The rapid growth of the country's elderly population and their increased demands from the Social Security Organization require a logical and scientific approach from the governing institutions and the Social Security Organization."

“The government should not persecute ”

Isn't equalization of pensions the right of a retired worker whose income ceiling is between 1.2 million and 1.5 million Tomans? Akbar Ghorbani, secretary of the "Workers' House" in West Tehran, raises this question and says: "80 percent of retired workers are on minimum wages, so equalization of pensions is their right, and workers should not be oppressed any more."

In explaining the "minimum wage," Akbar Ghorbani points out that 2.5 million out of a total of 3 million retired workers are left with living expenses: "It is their right to be able to spend more easily in old age, but under these conditions, they must have a plan for the money they receive, rial by rial, so that they are not forced to borrow at the end of the month." Many of these retired workers have borrowed from banks or people around them to pay for living expenses and are left with the interest they have to pay.

According to Articles 96 and 111 of the Social Security Law, the minimum pension for retired and disabled insured persons of the Social Security Organization must not be less than the minimum wage approved by the Supreme Labor Council, and on the other hand, the pension of retired workers must increase each year by the inflationary value of the cost of living basket.

Labor activists point to the government's responsibility for the livelihoods of low-income and marginalized groups. No employer will employ retired workers, and most of them are forced to work as bus drivers to make ends meet, a job that is a second job for many workers and retirees whose income is insufficient.

Rouhani's special assistant, Masoud Nili, said that pension funds are one of the "super challenges" of the country's economy.

Double Deprivation

The minimum subsistence basket for workers is 2.5 million Tomans. Accordingly, if any worker or retiree earns less than this amount, they live below the poverty line and within the misery index.

The secretary of the West Tehran Workers' House says that when the government is passive towards disadvantaged social groups, labor and pension organizations should exert pressure so as not to be accused of being passive like the government.

The government and parliament have promised to gradually increase pensions for retirees by allocating 3.4 trillion tomans in the budget, but even if this promise is implemented, it will mostly apply to retirees from state and military funds, not social security retirees.

However, the increase in pensions for retired workers in 2018 depends more on the outcome of wage negotiations in the Supreme Labor Council meetings and the payment of outstanding government debts than on the alignment of the government and parliament in allocating the budget.

In December, 160 representatives wrote a letter to the Speaker of the Parliament, asking him to follow up on the issue of adjusting the salaries of retired workers from the Social Security Fund. The letter stated: “The situation of the salaries of retirees and pensioners (generally receiving less than one million tomans) considering the cultural conditions of society, the role and social status of veterans and the elderly, and the physical conditions and diseases specific to this era, not only is there no proportionality between the salaries of retirees and pensioners with inflation, but it also does not correspond to the minimum standard costs.”

Meanwhile, the 10th Majlis recently approved the payment of 50 trillion tomans of claims from the Social Security Organization. Ali Asghar Bayat, head of the Supreme Association of Retired Workers, says the government is expected to be prudent and pay the outstanding claims of the Social Security Organization in accordance with the Sixth Development Plan law.

Below the poverty line

How should retirees who receive the minimum pension survive, especially when, at retirement age, the costs of children's marriages are added to the list of expenses, and the family becomes larger than before with the arrival of a daughter-in-law, son-in-law, and grandchildren?

Gholamreza Alizadeh, a social security researcher and retired university professor, points out that such families are forced to make do with food and healthcare costs. In his opinion, one of the reasons that drives a part of the workforce, especially in the office environment, to corruption and embezzlement is observing the living conditions of retirees who have lived and worked with honor for a lifetime.

Hossein Izdan, an inspector at the Tehran Retired Workers Association, estimates that an average retiree has up to three times the health care costs of a regular worker. This is despite the fact that private and semi-governmental supplementary insurance companies do not insure retirees because they cannot afford to cover the costs of someone with a high risk of illness.

In most countries of the world, retirement is considered a golden age for people with various benefits, but it can be said that retirement in Iran, especially for workers, is the beginning of a dark era. The beginning of a downward spiral of poverty, financial pressure, and austerity. Instead of being an opportunity for inner peace, these days become an economic threat.

Source: DW