No energy disruption due to labor protests: Iran President

Tehran — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gave assurance on June 30 that recent labor protests did not impact energy supply in the country or its exports and vowed to solve the problems following strikes in some oil and gas facilities.

"I announce here that we did not have any problem with oil production, or oil transfer, or its distribution, or its exports, in oil or derivatives. And we will not have," Rouhani said in a televised cabinet meeting speech.

Groups of workers in the energy industry have intermittently gone on strike or protested since a month ago in a bid to force authorities respond to their guild demands. Wage workers suffer from unfair payment and insecure job conditions, they said. State-employed workers complain about increased tax and payment cutback that have affected their income.

"There is a dispute over payments of some, especially those who work under strenuous conditions. The government pays attention to it. There is a problem in our budget law this year. I promise these honorable workers that their problems will be solved," Rouhani said.

"The oil minister [Bijan Zanganeh] follows this up... we will resolve this payment limit problem for them," Rouhani said.

Referring to the wage, daily-paid workers, Rouhani said: "For those who work under contractors in oil regions, I give a directive to the labor minister [Mohammad Shariatmadari] to solve their problems. Of course, their problem is not related to the oil ministry. It is about worker and contractor."

On June 29, Abadan Oil Refinery wage workers issued a statement and demanded elimination of contractors as "middlemen" to be directly employed by the plant.

"We will not shut down the work because we do not want to disrupt the job ... a contractor who hires us does not pay anything from his pocket... all the material even the food is being provided for him. But his monthly profit is a few hundred million rials," the labor news agency quoted an identified worker in the refinery as saying.

"State employees received a 21-fold increase in salary instead of the approved 15-fold ... it seems like we [around 4,000 workers] who are all experienced and skilled workers have been ... abandoned," the unnamed worker said.