More than 500 workers at the Safa Pipe factory have begun their fourth round of protests against the delayed payment of wages and other grievances.

ILNA reports that on January 1,500 workers at the Safa Pipe factory in Saveh, a city south of Tehran, demonstrated against the company’s failure to pay wages for more than six months.

One of the workers told ILNA that they have been gathering in protest since Saturday December 29, representing 1,300 workers at Safa Pipe factory who have not been paid in more than six months.

The workers claim that they have approached all officials with their complaint and so far have seen no effective way to resolve it.

One worker indicated that the loss of pay for more than six months has led to serious health and psychological crises for the workers, due to rising prices and their inability to meet debt and mortgage obligations.

The report indicates that, according to the workers, Safa Pipe factory is owned by one of the biggest businessmen in the Central Province, and in the past two years, even before the international sanctions against Iran took effect, he has repeatedly delayed the payment of wages.

Labour protests have been on the rise in recent months in Iran, with every week bringing the shutdown of a factory or workshop.

Despite claims by the Ahmadinejad administration that it has created millions of jobs over the past two years, many factories have closed, blaming the administration’s scrapping of government subsidies on food and energy for their inability to keep businesses afloat in the face of rising energy costs.

Source: Radio Zamaneh