May 1st in Iran: Workers Amidst War Poverty and Repression Statement by Hana Human Rights Organization on the Crisis of the Fundamental Right to Work in the Islamic Republic of Iran On the occasion of May 1st International Workers’ Day
The Hana Human Rights Organization expresses its profound concern regarding the increasing collapse of the fundamental right to work in Iran. In the Islamic Republic, workers do not only face poverty, inflation, layoffs, job insecurity, wage arrears, and a lack of social protection; whenever they demand fair wages, job security, independent unions, or engage in labor protests, they are met with security-driven logic, judicial harassment, detention, and repression.
Hana emphasizes that the current situation of workers in Iran is not merely the result of an economic crisis, war, or the consequences of a fragile ceasefire. This situation is the product of a governmental structure that views the right to independent association, collective bargaining, and labor protest as a threat to its political survival. Within such a structure, the worker is reduced from a rights-holder to a subject of security control, and their basic demands including the payment of overdue wages, protests against dismissal, workplace safety, and the establishment of independent syndicates are transformed into security cases.
From the perspective of international law, the right to work, the right to just and favorable conditions of work, the right to form unions, and the right to strike are guaranteed under Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Furthermore, Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) recognizes the freedom of association, including labor associations. Therefore, the securitization of labor demands, the suppression of professional protests, and the referral of labor activists to security agencies and Revolutionary Courts constitute a direct violation of Iran’s international obligations.
The fundamental standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) are also clear in this regard. The 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (amended in 2022) identifies the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labor, the abolition of child labor, the elimination of discrimination in employment, and the right to a safe and healthy working environment as fundamental principles. These principles are reflected in core ILO conventions, including Convention No. 87 (Freedom of Association), Convention No. 98 (Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining), Conventions No. 29 and 105 (Forced Labor), Conventions No. 100 and 111 (Equal Remuneration and Non-discrimination), Conventions No. 138 and 182 (Child Labor), and Conventions No. 155 and 187 (Occupational Safety and Health).
The Islamic Republic cannot evade its responsibility toward these fundamental principles by citing the non-ratification of certain conventions.
Membership in the ILO commits states to respect these principles. However, the Islamic Republic’s practice is effectively built on the negation of these very principles: independent associations are not tolerated, strikes are criminalized, protesting workers face security charges, and Revolutionary Courts, instead of protecting rights, have become tools for suppressing professional demands.
This structural repression has deepened within the context of war, a fragile ceasefire, and a profound economic crisis. The sharp decline in purchasing power, the collapse of real wages, the closure or downsizing of production units, layoffs, forced or unpaid leaves, rising unemployment, and the lack of effective insurance support have turned the right to work from a fundamental right into a fragile and revocable privilege. Under these conditions, workers are the primary victims of war, corruption, mismanagement, and political isolation.
The crisis of the right to work in Iran is not limited to formal workers or those with contracts. Afghan migrant workers, especially those without residency documents, are in one of the most defenseless legal and social positions, effectively deprived of a vast range of job protections, insurance, wages, and judicial recourse. Similarly, Baloch fuel carriers and Kurdish Kolbar whose daily livelihoods depend on arduous, high-risk, and often lethal labor are not recognized within the formal framework of labor protections. They lack job security, effective insurance, and social support, and in many cases, they lack even the minimum legal recognition that domestic laws provide for a “worker.” This legal exclusion leaves them vulnerable to shootings by government forces, death along border routes, exploitation, poverty, and absolute defenselessness.
Hana condemns, in the strongest terms, the Islamic Republic’s organized policy of worker repression, the securitization of professional demands, the deprivation of workers’ right to independent association, and the structural indifference toward the crisis of livelihood and employment. The Iranian government is directly responsible for a situation where workers suffer from poverty, war, an unstable labor market, and the security apparatus alike.
Hana emphasizes that the right to work has no real meaning without the freedom of association, fair wages, job security, workplace safety, unemployment insurance, and the possibility of collective protest. As long as workers cannot freely organize, strike, have independent representation, and demand their rights without fear of arrest, dismissal, or security prosecution, any government claim regarding “support for workers” will be nothing more than political propaganda.
On May 1st, Hana declares its solidarity with workers, teachers, retirees, nurses, informal workers, Afghan migrant workers, Baloch fuel carriers, Kurdish Kolbars, female workers, and all those who continue to stand for human dignity and social justice under the pressure of poverty, war, discrimination, and repression. The labor crisis in Iran is not the crisis of a single occupational group; it is a crisis of human rights, dignity, and freedom against a government that refuses to tolerate even the most basic labor demands.
Hana Human Rights Organization
Geneva – May 1, 2026