Between 2021-22, 3,826 workers in Iran were killed in so-called “workplace accidents.” These deaths are not isolated tragedies or unfortunate errors of management—they are the logical outcome of a social order in which the working class is systematically denied the right to organize, to supervise, and to intervene in the conditions of its own labor. This report, without providing any statistics, emphasizes that in the first half of 2024, the number of such incidents has increased significantly.
And this number only includes those who were insured and were on state lists. We know nothing about the thousands of other workers, especially migrant workers who had accidents and possibly died without a contract or insurance! What we are witnessing is not a series of accidents, but an indictment of a regime that has outlawed the collective power of workers in the name of security and order.
A recent report by the Islamic Regime’s parliamentary Research Center surveys workplace safety, with a particular focus on the mining sector. But this document, like the regime itself, is politically designed to obscure rather than to explain. It treats the deaths of thousands as technical failures—insufficient equipment, outdated methods—without a single word on the real mechanisms of death: the banning of trade unions, the persecution of worker militants, the dismantling of every democratic form of labor representation.
By narrowing the question of safety to technical administration, the regime avoids confronting the central contradiction: that under capitalism—particularly its authoritarian variant in Iran—profit demands the suppression of labor’s collective voice. The Parliament shifts blame to mine owners, yet refuses to name the state’s own policies of violent repression, which have made any form of independent worker organizing impossible. The legal framework is not “weak”; it is actively hostile to labor. Supervision is not “ineffective”; it is subordinated to class rule.
In such a system, the worker is condemned to silence. Deprived of unions, denied the right to strike, surveilled by intelligence agencies, and punished with prison for organizing, the Iranian workers is rendered politically naked before capital and its state protectors. In these conditions, to speak of “safety regulations” is an insult to those who die for lack of them. There can be no meaningful regulation where the working class is denied the basic right to defend its own life.
Systematic repression
According to the report, each mine was inspected only 1.8 times in 2022. That means some high-risk mines were not even visited once a year. The same mines—like the Tabas coal mine—caused the death of 52 workers in a 2024 methane explosion. The report blames the lack of monitoring systems, but fails to ask: why are there no systems in place? What kind of structure allows such negligence?
The truth is simple. Without independent labor organizations, no worker can resist the pressure from contractors or demand better safety equipment. When workers are denied a voice, inspections, safety, and standards become empty words.
But the problem runs even deeper. Workers haven’t only lost their voice—they face an entire system built to silence them. In Iran, any attempt to form independent unions is met with not just government neglect, but with direct intervention by intelligence agencies and police. Workers who protest unsafe conditions, unfair contracts, unpaid wages, or illegal dismissals are targeted by security forces, summoned to intelligence offices, and arbitrarily detained.
These forces—including the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard’s Intelligence Unit—act as protectors of employer interests. Many of these employers are directly linked to political power or security institutions. Mines and factories are often controlled by military-economic foundations or semi-state organizations that operate without accountability. They see any protest as a threat to their security.
In this environment, charges like “acting against national security,” “disturbing public opinion,” “inciting unrest,” and “disrupting public order” are used as weapons to crush worker protests. Labor activists are met not by safety inspectors but by intelligence agents looking for “strike organizers.” Instead of investigating exploitative contracts, security bodies build legal cases against those who demand enforcement of labor laws.
Notable cases
The Islamic Regime continues to target independent labor and teacher activists through arrests, imprisonment, and judicial harassment. These actions are part of a broader strategy to prevent the formation of independent unions and silence any form of collective worker resistance.
- Jafar Azimzadeh, a founding member of the Free Union of Iranian Workers, was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of “conspiracy against national security” and “propaganda against the regime.”
- Parvin Mohammadi, a prominent labor activist, received a one-year prison sentence for her public advocacy and interviews with independent media.
- Nahid Khodajo and Nasrin Javadi, both members of the Free Union, were sentenced to five and seven years in prison, respectively.
- Sepideh Gholian, who reported on labor conditions and abuses at the Haft-Tappeh Sugarcane Company, has been subjected to multiple arrests, torture, and prolonged detention.
- Mahmoud Salehi, a well-known labor organizer and former political prisoner, has faced repeated arrests and is under continuous surveillance and pressure.
- Esmail Bakhshi, a worker representative from Haft-Tappeh, was arrested and tortured following his public criticism of labor conditions and the involvement of intelligence agencies in suppressing worker protests.
Women labor activists have also faced persecution, particularly following participation in International Workers’ Day rallies. Neda Naji, Atefeh Rangriz, and Marzieh Amiri were arrested during May Day events and charged with “disturbing public order.”
Repression extends beyond the industrial sector to education. Teacher unionists have been systematically targeted:
- Ismail Abdi, former General Secretary of the Teachers’ Union, was re-imprisoned after serving a six-year sentence, based on the reactivation of a previously suspended 10-year sentence.
- Rasoul Bodaghi and Jafar Ebrahimi were sentenced to five years and four-and-a-half years in prison, respectively.
- Mohammad Habibi, spokesperson for the Teachers’ Union, has been arrested and imprisoned on multiple occasions.
- Other educators, including Ali Akbar Baghani, Aziz Ghasemzadeh, Mohsen Omrani, Mahmoud Molaki, and Abdolreza Amani-Far, have been subjected to prison sentences, dismissals, or administrative suspension due to their union activities.
These are not isolated punishments. They are a clear warning to every worker in Iran: organizing comes at a cost. This political repression makes it impossible to create effective social oversight. The lack of safety in mines or schools is not a technical problem—it is the political result of structural repression.
For Exploitation
The outcome is complete worker defenselessness. In the absence of independent labor institutions, with no free media, and under a system that sees even basic safety demands as a threat, the death of a worker is not an accident—it is the predictable result of the current order.
Workplace deaths in Iran are the direct result of workers’ inability to negotiate, organize, and protect themselves. This weakness is not natural—it has been deliberately imposed through the suppression of unions, the criminalization of activism, and the arrest of leaders.
The Parliamentary report talks about “safety issues,” but those issues are not neutral or accidental. They are the outcome of a political strategy that has erased the voice of the working class. What the report calls a “technical crisis” is actually a political crisis—one where workers are denied the tools to defend their own lives.
The deaths of workers in Iran are not primarily caused by sharp tools or methane explosions. They are caused by the ban on unionization, the silencing of worker demands, and the security approach to any independent activity. This is not just a workplace issue—it is the result of a system built for exploitation and repression.
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