South Pars Gas Complex Outsourced Contract Workers’ Massive Protest

Tuesday 11 November 2025

Third party contract workers (outsourced personnel) at the 12 refineries of the South Pars Gas Complex, a major industrial site in southern Iran,staged a massive unprecedented march and gathering on Tuesday 11 November in response to a call from their trade association (trade unions guild) to do so in pursuit of their legitimate demands.

As evident from the manifold reports and footage sent from on the ground there, a crowd of more than 3,000 workers marched together from their gathering point to the central headquarters building of the South Pars Gas Complex at 07:00 AM local time and subsequently rallied in a show of defiance outside the building.

Before commencing with the first phase of their protests on Friday 6 November, at sites across the 12 refineries that make up the SPG Complex, the workers’ representatives had articulated their core five demands from management and the Iranian authorities:

1. Revision of the job classification scheme with the aim of a fair and proper standardisation the wage structure/system in place. 
2. Full implementation of a 2:2 (two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off) shift rotation for administrative and support staff. 
3. Proper clarification and according of status of non-owner drivers of rented vehicles (used by contract workers at the sites). 
4. Payment of compensation for the cutting of welfare benefits (subsidised expenses relating to workers’ accommodation and subsistence, referred to as “camp fees”). 
5. Provision of subsidised air transportation (commuter flights) for contract workers (to ferry them from the distant locales they hail from around Iran, to the remotely situated oil and gas complexes in the country’s south). 

The workers’ organisation representing the demonstrating workers has warned that, should their demands be ignored, the next gathering will take place in front of the Asaluyeh Governorate’s Headquarters marking a clear escalation.

CODIR believes that these workers’ actions are a clear example of the worsening disgruntlement of Iranian workers at the state of affairs in the country, as well as a growing degree of organisation which has manifested in the coordinated action of thousands of workers across several refineries in the country’s most vital industrial sector.  Suffice to state, these are significant developments taking place.

Office

Central Executive Council

CODIR