Nasrollah Daryabigi, the executive secretary of the Workers' House of Mazandaran and vice president of the Supreme Association of Pensioners of the country, elaborated on the livelihood and healthcare demands of pensioners and social security insured individuals in an interview and stressed the need for full implementation of the law for free healthcare.
Discrimination in Speaking Opportunities
Daryabigi, while appreciating the President's meeting with pensioners, pointed out the discrimination in the distribution of speaking opportunities during this session and said: "The pensioner community covered by labor and social security law consists of over 5 million and 600 thousand individuals, but among the 10 speeches presented in the presence of the President, only 2 were from the labor and social security pensioner group." He urged the officials of the Ministry of Labor to apologize to the pensioners and prevent such approaches from recurring.
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Livelihood and Healthcare Demands of Pensioners
Daryabigi referred to the livelihood demands of pensioners and said: "The issue of adjusting salaries and maintaining the purchasing power of minimum wage earners is one of our definitive demands. Unfortunately, the agreed adjustment table for the years 2024 to 2025 has not yet been implemented." He also called for the reinstatement of the purchasing power maintenance payment for pensioners amounting to 716,000 tomans and emphasized that this amount has practically lost its value under current conditions.
He also criticized the lack of increase in wage benefits for pensioners this year and said: "In past decades, ancillary benefits such as housing allowance and child allowance were increased based on the inflation rate, but this increase has stopped this year."
Crises in Supplemental Insurance and Heavy Social Security Debts
Daryabigi, referring to the healthcare and livelihood problems of the insured individuals, said: "The non-payment of government debts to the Social Security Organization has caused many problems in this area. Currently, this organization owes about 22 trillion tomans to the insurance company (Atieh Sazan Hafez), which has led to severe dissatisfaction among pensioners."
He also urged the government to act quickly to resolve this crisis and support pensioners and pensioner associations.
The Law for Free Healthcare is a Red Line for Pensioners
Daryabigi emphasized the importance of the law for free healthcare and said: "This law is one of the most significant achievements of the Islamic Republic system that must be fully implemented. Unfortunately, for decades, the implementation of this law has been diverted, placing a heavy financial burden on workers and pensioners."
He also warned against some speculations regarding the transfer of social security healthcare resources and said: "We will not allow the healthcare resources of workers to be handed over to the Ministry of Health."
Daryabigi concluded by emphasizing the urgent need to reform the process of supplemental and healthcare insurance payments and said: "We hope that the relevant officials will pay more attention to these issues and take necessary actions."
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