Based on field investigations and available data gathered over the past year and during the first quarter of 2025, the Hana Human Rights Organization assesses the situation of workers’ rights in the cities of Kurdistan as critically dire.
Workers are widely deprived of basic rights to decent work. Amid the ongoing economic crisis in the country, many employers—seeking to mitigate their losses—have severely jeopardized the job security of their workers.
Due to the absence of effective legal protection mechanisms, workers are often forced to accept unilateral contracts imposed by employers. These contracts frequently offer wages below the official minimum wage or lack insurance coverage altogether. In many workplaces, the economic hardship has pushed workers to accept jobs without any formal contract or legal relationship with their employers. According to Hana’s findings, in numerous cases, employers unlawfully demand financial guarantees such as signed promissory notes from workers to prevent potential complaints to the labor dispute authorities.
The lack of effective legal oversight has also put workplace safety at serious risk. Work-related incidents, especially in construction and industrial sectors, pose life-threatening dangers. In most such cases, injured or deceased workers and their families face hostile treatment from the Social Security Organization, leaving them in extremely inhumane living conditions due to denied pensions or compensation.
Furthermore, the right to freedom of association and unionizing is under intense pressure and surveillance by security forces. There are no guarantees for union rights as recognized by international human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), or the ILO’s core labor standards, in the legal framework of the Islamic Republic. Only state-sponsored labor institutions are permitted to operate in the workplace, but these organizations do nothing to improve working conditions or protect workers’ legitimate rights. Instead, they primarily serve to promote the Islamic values of the ruling establishment.
Independent labor organizations are not tolerated under any circumstances, and affiliation with groups such as the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations is often met with vague charges such as “acting against national security.”
Hana Human Rights Organization expresses its deep concern over the deteriorating state of fundamental labor rights in Kurdistan, and urgently calls on specialized UN agencies, particularly the International Labour Organization (ILO), to monitor the situation of labor rights in Iran.
Hana Human Rights Organization – April 2025