Dear Mr. President Hassan Rouhani,

I am writing this letter to you as the General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, which represents more than fifty million workers in mining, energy and manufacturing sectors in more than 140 countries, including Iran, to urge you to intervene immediately to put an end to the violation of fundamental labour rights at the Imam Khomeini Petrochemical Complex in Mahshahr.

We are extremely concerned to learn that workers at the Khomeini Petrochemical Complex have not been paid their wages in months, their bonuses have been drastically reduced, and they are no longer receiving overtime pay.

Equally worrisome and deplorable is the subcontracting system that the Khomeini Petrochemical Complex uses to hire and exploit its workforce.  Rather than employing workers directly and taking full responsibility as a main and responsible employer, it resorts to a network of human resources companies and contractors that profit handsomely and unscrupulously on the back of workers.

In many cases, the contractors contracted by the Khomeini Petrochemical Complex are three or four times removed from the company, and at each level of subcontracting the contractor takes a 10-15 percent cut from the salary of each worker. At the end of this chain of exploitation, workers receive, if at all, less than fifty percent of their already meagre wages.

In addition, workers are left with no legal protection or recourse to demand the respect and enforcement of their core labour rights.

Therefore, IndustriALL Global Union urges the Iranian government to act without delay to ensure that the Imam Khomeini Petrochemical Complex in Mahshahr stop subcontracting workers and instead employ them directly and guarantee decent working conditions in the plant.

I anticipate your prompt action and reply.

Sincerely yours,

Valter Sanches, General Secretary