TEHRAN 28TH Feb. (IPS) Hundreds of angry workers protested peacefully Monday in Tehran and other major Iranian cities against a bill passed by the Majles (parliament) on Sunday exempting small workshop from labour laws.
Demonstrators gathered in front of the Majles, denounced the bill as both "insulting and humiliating to the workers, a sell out of workers to the workshop owners".
The new law provides that workshops with a workforce of five or less, are exempted from provisions stipulated in the Labour Law for a period of six years, up to the end of the third development plan.
Experts warned that the law would jeopardise the lives of some 2.5 millions workers who work in thousands of small workshops throughout the country, many of them in small towns and rural areas as it will allow owners to lay out workers, downsize the units or fix the wages accordingly, without any control from the Labour Ministry.
As the urgency of the bill was approved by the Majles last April and its outlines were ratified in May, with voting suspended for a period of six months, some analysts said one reason for the conservative-controlled Majles to pass the bill now was to create new difficulties for the government of President Mohammad Khatami.
The bill had already been rejected in the Labour and Social Welfare Commission of the Majles as the main examining body, the official news agency IRNA observed.
Commenting on the decision, former MP from Shiraz, the capital city of Fars Province Mr. Qasem Sho'leh Sa'di said the outgoing Majles would spare no efforts to pass a maximum of anti-reform, unpopular bills as to create mountains of difficulties for the Government in order to revenge the humiliating defeat the conservatives received at the polls.
The measure allows bosses of small firms to escape paying social security charges for their workers or to sack employees summarily.
"It's an act of revenge by the conservatives against the reformists," Soheila Jolodarzedeh, a reformist MP who won re-election in Tehran, told AFP.
She said the legislation was in violation of the Constitution, which guarantees work and social security for every Iranian, adding that the Council of Guardians, another conservative-dominated body, would certainly reject it.
"Here we are in the 21st century and our MPs are passing laws which encourage exploitation", Jolodarzadeh said, while calling on workers to show restraint.
The Labour Welfare Islamic Party (LWIP), a new political grouping that supports the President's promised reforms described the bill as "contrary to social justice and the constitution".
In a statement released immediately after the session, the LSWP said the bill not only deals a blow on job security of workers but also ignores the basic rights of millions of workers as well.
Announcing its opposition to the approval of the bill, the Party called for its rejection by all relevant organisations, including the Council of Guardians, a watchdog body that, among other duties, determines the compatibility of the bills passed by the Majles with Islamic canons.
The Labourers House and the High Court for Islamic Labour Councils, in separate statements, opposed the Majles action as a "severe, intolerable blow on the labour community", IRNA reported.
"In order to discredit the Government and demonstrate it's incapacity, in implementing reforms, conservatives MPs defeated in the last Majles elections would continue undermining the President in the last three months of the life of this House", Mr. Sho'leh Sa'di pointed out, as four members of the Labour and Social Affairs Commission of the Majles criticised the bill and stressed that the legal rights of workers can only be restored in accordance with law.
But one conservatives spokesman defended the Bill, saying if was in line with the government's efforts to bring "normality" and stimulating the economic situation.
"If the present situation continue, thousands of small workshops would be shut with all their workforce out of job. The Bill will save millions of jobs", he added.
The protesters dispersed following a speech delivered by a Tehran deputy in Majles and Secretary General of the Labourers House, Mr. Alireza Mahjoub, who promised the workers an investigation would be made into the case.
Observers noted that this was a rare occasion when workers were allowed to demonstrate and protest indirectly against the ruling conservatives without intervention from the Law Enforcement Forces or other pressure groups. ENDS WORKERS PROTEST 28200