Half of Iran’s construction workers are tenants

According to Trade News، Contrary to what is usually the case in the first half of the year, most construction projects are overhauled, this spring the amount of construction was less than in the winter of 1999.

According to the report of the Statistics Center, in the spring of this year, the amount of housing construction in Tehran decreased by 13.8% compared to the winter of 1999, and this index decreased by 24.6% in the whole country.

Now the stagnant housing market has made livelihoods more difficult for workers in this sector than ever before. Fardin, who came to Tehran from Kurdistan to work as a worker, says that if his total income this year is divided by months of unemployment, his monthly wage will reach one and a half to two million tomans. This is while the minimum wage of workers this year is 2 million 655 thousand, which with benefits and work records this figure increases to 4 million 111 thousand tomans.

The head of a worker who introduces himself as Shams explains that at the beginning of the summer, one of his workers fell from a third-floor scaffolding and had his spinal cord amputated. .

Another worker, who did not want to be named, said he worked in an online taxi when he was unemployed, but the Social Security Administration cut off his insurance after monitoring his activities.

Insurance for some construction workers was cut

Akbar Shaukat, head of the Construction Workers’ Association, said: “Ideally, construction workers only work six months a year and spend the rest of the year unemployed.”

He continues: The wages of ordinary workers, provided they work full time, are less than the minimum wage in Iran, and semi-skilled workers receive between 20 and 25 percent more than the minimum wage. This is in the context that masters with 25 to 30 years of work experience receive only 1.5 times the minimum wage of workers in Iran.

The head of the Construction Workers’ Association emphasizes: If we take into account the months of unemployment of construction workers, we will reach sad numbers. While some Iranian construction workers are excellent artists in the field of hand-made bedding, masonry and knitting, masonry, etc., these same artist workers do not have any suitable insurance coverage.

According to Shaukat, only about 800,000 of the 1.5 million construction workers are currently covered by social security.

He also reports that nearly one million construction workers were already covered by insurance, but in the year of the Corona outbreak, the Social Security Administration cut off insurance for more than 200,000 workers due to lack of funding.

In addition to the corona outbreak, Ministry of Labor reports indicate that construction workers are at the forefront of work accidents. Also, according to the statistics of the Supreme Council of Technical Protection and Health, 38% of deaths due to work accidents are related to construction workers.

Prevalence of tenancy among construction workers

“Homeless Housing Builders” is the title that Akbar Shaukat, head of the Construction Workers ‘Association, attributes to tenant workers in the sector, and says that according to a study by the Construction Workers’ Association, about 50 percent of Iranian construction workers are tenants in the poorest urban areas.

He explains: In Qom province, where the housing construction situation is better than other provinces in Iran, 30 to 35% of construction workers are tenants and some live in small houses 40 to 50 meters.

Shaukat describes the financial situation of construction workers in the provinces of Kurdistan, Lorestan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Kerman and North and South Khorasan as dire, and says that the situation is similar in some small cities in the provinces of West and East Azerbaijan and Ardabil. They have the same rent as other workers.

How many foreign workers work in Iran?

The head of the Construction Workers ‘Association also points to the Taliban’s domination of Afghanistan and explains: “As the Afghans’ migration to Iran grows, the situation of Iranian workers is deteriorating, with between 400,000 and 500,000 foreign construction workers currently working in Iran.” At the time of the construction of Mehr housing, their number had reached one million.

Shaukat continues: “According to the labor law, the employment of foreign nationals in Iran’s construction sector is illegal, and the presence of Afghan workers has drastically reduced the employment rate of Iranian workers in the construction sector.” There are reports in the Iranian media that Iranian construction workers have migrated to countries such as Iraq and the UAE, and in limited cases to Turkey. According to the trade unions in this sector, the workers are among the most skilled Iranian workers, and with the intensification of their migration, the quality of construction in the housing sector will be affected.

Source: Online Economy