Iran Feature: The Lives Of Women Day Labourers (Tehran Bureau)

Photo: Amin Khosroshahi (ISNA)"A Correspondent" writes for Tehran Bureau:

The lot of women day laborers in Iran, with its patriarchal social structure and straitened economic conditions, is not a happy one. These women, around two million of them, are virtually helpless when it comes to the defense of their rights. In a situation where the supply of labor outstrips demand, Iranian women's historically subordinate role makes many virtual slaves to their jobs.

In a conservative culture where many families still look down on women working outside the home, economic pressure is the principal impetus for the rapid growth in the number of female day laborers. A secondary and related cause is the mass migration of rural Iranians to cities --- one of the largest ongoing internal migration trends in the world.

Newspaper and wall advertisements around Tehran indicate that women laborers are sought for the sort of jobs that require repetitive, intricate work. Sewing, ironing, and product packaging in various factories, domestic cleaning, nursing the elderly, and catering constitute the bulk of the jobs done by women day laborers. While at first glance these may appear to be simple jobs, a closer look reveals that they are given to women precisely because their gender makes it easy to exploit them.

Technological advances have changed the nature of factory work. There is no need to hire strong men to do many jobs that women can now do just as well. What has not changed is the nature of a male-dominated culture. Compared to men, female day laborers are prone to lower wages, longer hours, inferior working conditions, more uncertain job security, and much greater abuse of all kinds.

None of the factories employing female day laborers in Tehran pay more than an average of 300,000 tomans (about $200) a month. No contracts are signed and no insurance coverage paid. One facility owner mentioned that no official from the workers' insurance agency has visited his facility in the past 15 years. Except for a very few factories, the workdays are 12 hours or even longer. The workplaces are habitually overcrowded and filthy, breeding grounds for disease, and most laborers are required to work either bending over or sitting on the floor. If the job requires sitting on a chair, the chairs are often rickety, too short, or simply broken. As a result of their working conditions, many laborers suffer maladies such as deformed spinal columns, skin rashes, respiratory illnesses, and severe eyesight problems. In addition, women routinely have to endure unwanted sexual advances.

Almost all day laborers eat lunch at workplace lunchrooms. They often eat the same low-grade food over and over again, and digestive illnesses are widespread as a consequence. The lunchroom is also another means by which workers' lives are tied to the factory for as long as they are on the floor. Since payment is dependent on volume -- often pursuant to a daily quota -- laborers work as fast as humanly possible. A foreman need never worry that day laborers will take too much time for their lunch breaks.

It really does not matter how aware these workers are regarding their rights, it only matters that they cannot even ask for what they are owed because they can so easily be replaced. In many instances workers' identifications cards are taken away from them, giving employers the opportunity to unilaterally exploit them, withhold their wages, or fire them without notice. All this with the knowledge that the laborers effectively have no legal support system.

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