10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10770
Coronavirus is a big challenge not only for public health, but also for employment. Emergency restrictions have been affecting the regular business functioning. There are various plan to involve associations in the management of the crisis and attempts to arrange remote working, especially in the field of education and in the public sector. In the private sector, it has been left to the employer to arrange it. The Government here has not imposed any business shut down or a reduction of working hours, as well as remote working arrangements.
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1561-8048
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Elaheh Zabeh
Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Financial aids
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Iran
Text.Serial.Journal
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National Reports
2020-04-15
2020-04-14
2020-04-15
2020-09-15
ILLeJ
Elaheh Zabeh
2020/04/15
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10770
Shahid Beheshti University
1561-8048
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Financial aids
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Iran
https://illej.unibo.it/article/download/10770/10679
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Iran                                                       Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Elaheh Zabeh                                                                       Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
ellie.zabeh@icloud.com                                               Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                                 ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                  https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10770




                       COVID-19 and Labour Law: Iran
                                            Elaheh Zabeh *

                                                   Abstract


     Coronavirus is a big challenge not only for public health, but also for employment. Emergency
     restrictions have been affecting the regular business functioning. There are various plan to
     involve associations in the management of the crisis and attempts to arrange remote working,
     especially in the field of education and in the public sector. In the private sector, it has been left
     to the employer to arrange it. The Government here has not imposed any business shut down
     or a reduction of working hours, as well as remote working arrangements.
     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour Law; Unemployment benefit; Financial aids.




    A national health emergency has been declared on the 22nd of February, with the creation
 of a special committee, originally directed by the Ministry of health and medicine education
 and now headed by President Hassan Rouhani himself.
    Schools and Universities have been closed one month before New Year holidays,
 switching to distance learning. The Ministry of education ordered to pay the wages for the
 entire scholastic year of teachers working for nonprofit schools; that is to say, those schools
 providing high quality education, where students are charged with fees. Meanwhile, there was
 no serious intention to close organizations and offices (governmental/public and individual
 sector), on the 25th of March, in the middle of Norooz Holiday (second week of the holidays),
 the government demanded to close shopping centers in cities.

    About the period after Norooz Holiday, reccomendantions have been enacted about
 remote working especially for parents, reducing working hours, as well as shift-work in public
 sectors. On the contrary, there are no provisions for the private sector. The decision whether
 to shut down the business has been left to the employer, while more supervision will be
 dedicated to improve health and safety at the workplace1. The Ministry of labour
 recommended the negotiation of agreements between employers and employees on H&S
 measures. In accordance to Civil Liability Act, employees can claim for damages in court in
 case they get infected with coronavirus at the workplace.



 *
     Shahid Beheshti University, LLM alumna.
 1   https://www.mcls.gov.ir/fa/news/195894.
    Elaheh Zabeh                                                                Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                               Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                  Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                    Section: National Reports




    There is general concern about job security of workers, since some employers who are
financially incapable of paying the wages (even before the crisis), could take advantage of the
situation2 to terminate the employment contracts without a good reason. Due to this
situation, dispute resolution committees, dealing with employer and employee conflicts, have
to consider the fact and protect employees, introducing more financial aid and credit for
factories (with low interest rates). This could be used to pay the wages. For its importance in
protecting the internal labour market, this can be included among one of the current actions
of the Iranian government3.

    In this period, according to the Iranian social security system, unemployed workers can
claim a three-months unemployment benefit related to the Coronavirus. This is intended
only workers who are considered as “employee” and under the scope of Labour Act. Thus,
many workers are excluded: i.e. those working in factories employing less than 10 workers,
daily-workers, contractors or taxi drivers are not included in this provision.
    Moreover, the government is offering loans of 1-2m tomans (€66 to €120) — charging
4% interest — to construction workers, seasonal workers, daily workers, street vendors, taxi
drivers and restaurant staff to face the coronavirus impact on their income. Around three
million families will benefit from this provision; families with no income at all will receive
vouchers of up to 2,000,000 IR Rial a month (per person) and up to 6,000,000 IR Rial a
month for families composed by fiver or more members (€15 and €40 respectively). Also,
because of trade unions were demanded to close their stores, Central Bank considered vast
credits for them with interest rate up to 14%.
    Many argues4 that this provision is neither able to grant a minimum income, nor able to
target the persons who really deserve it.
    The Welfare Organization also developed special aid to provide health productive means
(mask or sanitizer gel) for disabled persons and for workers in the nursing and caregiving
sectors5. The Ministry of industry mine and trade also announce that persons who work on
family factory could join in the production of sanitary medical devices, without going through
the lincensing system6.
    International sanctions are clearly hindering the ability of the Iranian government to cope
with this situation7, thus for the firs time in 60 years, Iran has asked for $5bn loan to the
International Monetary Fund. The government has also invited NGOs to cooperate in
managing of the crisis alongside Coronavirus committee8.


2  Under labour Act, yearly supreme labour committee constructed from governmental party, employer’s
represent and employees’ represent to negotiate on increasing minimum wage on March (before New Year),
unfortunately, it is decided to postpone the meeting crisis after coronavirus crisis.
3 http://dolat.ir/detail/335665
4-http://www.rfi.fr/fa/
5-Head of welfare organization of providence of Tehran declared https://www.khabaronline.ir/news/1369878.
6 Ministry of industry and trade declaration www.mimt.gov.ir
7 Economist Thierry Coville wrote in La Croix on 13 March, ‘If you take away 40% of a country’s income by

prohibiting the export of its gas and oil, there will obviously be consequences on the effectiveness of its
healthcare system.
8 https://www.moi.ir/fa/134503



https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10770                                                                 2
 Elaheh Zabeh                                                            Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                        Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                           Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                             Section: National Reports




   Other organizations, established on the basis of the Islamic revolution on 1979 and under
supreme leader’s properties (like Mostazafan Fundation of Islamic Revolution), are helping
the Government. They set up a 50,000,000,000 IRRials fund to provide protective
equipments for persons in need; the Mostazafan Foundation also announced on 16 March
that it will give 1m tomans (around €66) to 4,000 street vendors in the south of Tehran.
   In conclusion, with regards to the above investigation, as far as labour and social security
are concerned there are numerous meritorious actions aimed at fighting the pandemic.
However, it could not be denied that a special supervising system needed be organized to
monitor these actions in advance to assure their effectiveness. The role of parliament and
their ombudsman could be valuable, beside judicial supervisions.

   Society has been faced with an emergency situation. Public health, on the one side,
wellbeing, on the other side, are weighted in this moment; so restriction aimed at preserving
public health should be suitable for securing the attainment of the objective which they
pursue, and not go beyond what is necessary in order to attain it, according to the principle
of proportionality. Furthermore, it would really help Iran facing the crisis a temporary
reduction of sanctions and a support aimed at providing means for protecting health, in case
under the supervision of the international community.




Copyright © 2020 Elaheh Zabeh. This article is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License




https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10770                                                          3
