In recent days, the contentious decision to raise the retirement age in Iran by the regime’s parliament has sparked widespread criticism. Labor organizations have denounced the resolution as “anti-labor” in separate letters to the Guardian Council, urging its rejection. Members of the labor commission within the parliament have also penned a letter to the Guardian Council, seeking the rejection and revision of this resolution.
In this letter, the labor faction outlined the challenges faced by the labor community, warning that the approval of this resolution by the Guardian Council would deal an irreparable blow to workers. They asserted that the decision to increase the retirement age was made “without due consideration of logical and legal reasons” and without respecting workers’ maximum rights and fair reforms under the 7th Development Plan.
If the parliament’s resolution is sanctioned and implemented by the Guardian Council, the retirement age for men will be 62 years, and for women, it will be 55 years. This alteration also extends the retirement history to a maximum of five years, requiring new entrants to the labor market to work an additional five years before retirement.
It appears that this move by the Iranian Parliament stems from the regime’s inability and mismanagement in finding a solution to the pension funds’ insolvency — a temporary solution that once again adversely affects the working class.
The parliament cites “reducing pension fund disparities and strengthening fund capabilities” as a key reason for this decision. Javan’s newspaper, associated with the so-called principlist faction and linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), asserts that proponents believe this decision is the only way to prevent pension fund bankruptcy and substantial losses in the medium term.
According to the newspaper, out of 17 pension funds in Iran covering a population of 60 million, four funds cannot meet the salaries and benefits of retirees from domestic sources.
Simultaneously, Tejarat News reported that the country’s pension fund is on the brink of crisis, with over 1.64 million contributors as of September 2023, consisting of 81% main retirees, 18% secondary pensioners, and 1% disabled individuals.
The report attributes the critical state of pension funds to factors such as the appointment of inefficient managers, management errors, corruption, political interference, and misguided decisions at the government and parliamentary levels, leading to an increasing government debt to these funds each year.
By withdrawing funds from pension accounts, the regime has officially indebted itself to these funds, pushing them toward bankruptcy. Even with the extension of working years to 35, per the new retirement law, this exacerbates the injustice faced by workers, compounding the challenges posed by low wages and the imposition of absolute poverty.
The regime’s radical decision to increase the retirement age for new employees by 12.5 years means that someone entering the workforce this year must toil for 42.5 years before retiring. Such an increase, adjusted based on work experience, would likely incite widespread unrest in any other part of the world.
The decision to raise the retirement age is truly alarming, and it warrants protest. It is untenable for a few individuals to decide that workers will bear the brunt of pension fund inefficiencies with their lives.
Shifting the retirement age from 30 to 35 not only delays the pension fund bankruptcy crisis but also gives rise to a larger crisis: social exhaustion.
In response, workers and retirees continue daily protest gatherings, voicing their dissatisfaction with the neglect of their rightful demands. Key demands include the removal of salary caps, the restoration of retirement rights, the reimbursement of excess tax deductions, prevention of pension fund misuse, and the timely payment of salaries and benefits.
