Nurses in Tehran, Ahwaz, Isfahan, Qom, and several other cities have organized a wave of protests against the Ministry of Health’s new performance-based pay scheme, which launched earlier this year.
Mohmmad Sharifi Moqadam, the secretary general of an Iranian nurses group, told Ana News Agency that the protests began not long after the ministry issued payments to hospital employees in line with the new initiative.
The new system of “wages based on performance” replaces the previous arrangement, whereby nurses were paid per case. “This new system is undoubtedly discriminatory and unfair,” Moqadam said.
But deputy health minister of the Ministry of Health and Medical Treatment, Mohammad Haji-Aqajani, disagreed, insisting that the new system was fairer, a way of establishing "justice among various ranks of hospital personnel with regard to their wages.”
The recent protests are part of a wider dissatisfaction among Iran’s public services employees, including among the country’s teachers, who have also taken to the streets to protest against budget cuts and a lack of support from the government. On June 27, authorities arrested a key teachers' union activist.
Read the original article in Persian
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