The protests by Iranian nurses continued on Saturday, November 25, 2023.
Iranian nurses have protested many times in different cities in protest against non-payment of their overtime work, bonuses, and tariffs. Saturday saw protests by nurses in Sanandaj and Saqqez, in Kurdistan province.
Last weekend, November 18 and 19, Iranian nurses held protests in various cities, including Tehran, Rasht, Yazd, Arak, Eslamabad-e Gharb, and Kermanshah.
Nurses must do overtime work for low fees. They receive only 1.9 million tomans for 130 hours of overtime work. Iranian nurses complain about voluminous work, insufficient payment, past-due bonuses, and unjust tariffs.
The head of the Nursing Organization, Mohammad Mirza Beigi, said medical centers presently lack more than 100,000 nurses.
Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, general secretary of the House of Nurses, recently acknowledged that 90 percent of Iranian nurses are discontented. Such discontent is one of the main reasons for nurses’ migration from the country.
The state-run ILNA news agency reported on October 28, that nurses received only 2.2 million Tomans in November 2023, for 147 hours of overtime work they did in March. And even then, 240,000 Tomans are deducted as tax. This means that nurses receive only 15,000 Tomans for each hour of work, while the price for one kilogram of beef is 560,000 Tomans and chicken is sold for 90,000 Tomans.
The state-run Tasnim website, reported on November 19, that “more than 3,000 nurses emigrate from Iran every year.” In addition, there are several thousand nurses who have “either resigned or have been expelled.”
The nurses’ emigration and resignation are among the reasons the workload on Iranian nurses is heavy.