Over 5,000 Iranian retirees who formerly worked for Iran\u2019s Education Ministry, Armed Forces, Nursing Organization and other state bodies held another large demonstration outside the country\u2019s parliament building in Tehran on Tuesday morning [February 28] to protest against low pension levels and demand fairer allocation from the 2017 budget.\u00a0 Retired civil servants from the Ministry of Industry and Mining, along with former nurses, paramedics and fraud victims of the \u2018Padideh Shandiz\u2019 telecommunication company were also among the protesters at the latest demonstration against the government\u2019s controversial austerity budget.
\nAccording to a report by the Free Union of Iranian Workers, the retirees traveled from cities and areas across Iran, including Tehran, Karaj, Esfahan, Mazandaran, Gilan, Kurdistan, East Azerbaijan, Ilam, Khorasan, and Mashhad, to attend the demonstration. The protesters chanted slogans outlining their demands, including, \u201cPoverty line: 4 million, our salary: 1 million\u201d (Income=$270, Poverty Line=$1080), \u201cRetirees rise up to stop discrimination!\u201d, \u201cLess embezzlement, fewer problems for us!\u201d, \u201cNo nation has seen this much injustice!\u201d, \u201cMPs, shame on you! Do justice!\u201d, \u201cWhen it\u2019s our turn, the treasury is empty\u201d, and \u201cNational TV, make our voice heard!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00bb<\/span> Retirees under poverty line<\/span><\/strong> Over 5,000 Iranian retirees who formerly worked for Iran\u2019s Education Ministry, Armed Forces, Nursing Organization and other state bodies held another large demonstration outside the country\u2019s parliament building in Tehran on Tuesday morning [February 28] to protest against low pension levels and demand fairer allocation from the 2017 budget.\u00a0 Retired civil servants from the Ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1582,1580,1581,1576,476,282,409,1579,1578,204,1577,1583],"class_list":["post-2653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amir-farhangi","tag-east-azerbaijan","tag-ilam","tag-irans-parliament","tag-justice","tag-khorasan","tag-mashhad","tag-padideh-shandiz","tag-poverty-line","tag-protesters","tag-retirees","tag-security-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2653"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2657,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions\/2657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA large number of Iran\u2019s pensioners are already living under the poverty line, with the past few years seeing regular protests against the meagre pension levels. The announcement of the new austerity budget for 2017 has prompted even greater anger, with Tuesday\u2019s protest outside the parliament being the second demonstration over salaries and pensions within a week; the first on February 21 saw retired teachers,\u00a0 as well as nurses and workers in a number of other fields, gather to protest against low salaries and pensions and demand increases in both.
\nOn February 26, a director of legal affairs from the country\u2019s Civil Servants Pension Organization announced that 8,000 rulings issued by the Administrative Court ordering an increase in individual retirees pensions are currently in abeyance due to a lack of funds.
\nThe judiciary and government have suspended payment of the increased pensions ordered by the Administrative Court, estimated at 35 trillion Tomans [one Toman = 10 Rials], arguing that the state lacks the funds to enable payment of these monies.
\nSpeaking during Tuesday\u2019s protest outside the parliament, Amir Farhangi, the chairperson of the Ministry of Education\u2019s Retirees Association, criticized the 2017 budget allocation for the ministry, saying that the association has no answer for retirees demanding fairer treatment.\u00a0Farhangi added that the number of retired education ministry personnel is increasing, rising to 35,000-40,000 per year and that the retirement lump sum, which should be paid to them, can only be paid if it is ratified by parliament and included in the ministry\u2019s budget.
\nAt around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the parliament\u2019s security force declared the protest illegal and asked the participants to disperse, but the officers were booed by all the retirees and decided to allow them to continue. A number of parliamentarians also attended the rally to show their support for the protester’s demands, with some of the retirees\u2019 representatives meeting with the MPs.\u00a0 The demonstration ended at 4 p.m.
\nRadio Zamaneh<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"