According to confirmed reports, yesterday (8 October 2025), over 200 contractual workers at the Star Oil facility in southern Iran went on strike in protest at not having received their wages since July.

The employer’s lacklustre response so far has been to ask the workers to remain patient.  However, the protesters have legitimately responded that patience does not afford them bread nor the ability to take a sick family member to the doctor.

As of publication, the strike has intensified with workers remaining in their dormitories and refusing to be transferred to site until their wage arrears are paid by the employer.

Last month, workers with contractual status (also referred to in the scheme of Iranian labour terms as project or third-party workers) in the Iran’s oil and gas sector held major protest rallies in various parts of the country, including Gachsaran, Asaluyeh, and Ahvaz.

The most important demands of these workers are:

• An end to discrimination [between classification of workers] in the payment of outstanding wages and entailing benefits/supplements.
• Prompt implementation of a fair and proper Job Classification Scheme.
• Prompt and full implementation of the Government Employee Organisation Scheme.

The objective of these demands is to remove the disparities between the aforementioned contractual workers and official (or formal) employees (those with “official contracts” directly engaged by the employer).

Despite the high and rising proportion of these workers in the oil and gas sector, and consequently the crucial role they have in the securing of the main part of Iran’s national revenue, they remain deprived of the like remuneration, benefits, bonuses, and the facilities afforded to their official employee colleagues despite their assigned duties and work often being equivalent.

Furthermore, contractual workers in the National Iranian Drilling Company or engaged on other offshore platforms and similar set ups commonplace in the sector, face arduous conditions and hardships in their work owing to rotational shift work (which results in them being away from their homes and families for prolonged periods), exposure to fierce heat without shade, exposure to toxic and hazardous materials without adequate protection, and often working unsecured at extreme heights.  Other contractual workers at gas pressure boosting or reduction stations, as well as those in working for municipal networks, also face their own specific difficulties.

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One of the most important demands of contractual workers in the oil and gas industry regarding the elimination of discrimination in wages and benefits is the proper implementation of Iran’s Administrative Justice Court Ruling No. 3188.

Based on this ruling, the calculation of job benefits, such as overtime, shift work, and Friday (Iranian weekend) work must be based on the full wage, not just the base wage.

It is important to note that the effective implementation of this ruling would in fact align with the principles of the Islamic Republic’s own Labor Code as well as International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 100, which articulates “equal remuneration for work of equal value”, which Iran ratified and signed in 1972.

Therefore, Islamic Republic officialdom is legally obligated, under its own rules and provisions, to act to eliminate the ongoing discrimination between contractual workers and official employees in Iranian labour relations and to properly give redress to the legitimate demands and grievances of the former – not least those toiling in Iran’s crucially important oil and gas sector.

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CODIR applauds and fully supports the industrial action being undertaken contractual workers in affected sections of Iran’s oil and gas industries, as well as the their principled and unwavering stance in the face of increasing hardship having not been paid for months and the difficult working conditions they are forced to endure – not to mention the ever-worsening economic, social, and political crises inside Iran.

We salute their resolve and invite and encourage British trade unionists to do the same and express their solidarity with their Iranian counterparts. 

Office

Central Executive Council

CODIR