Workers Hailed as Backbone of Production

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei applauded workers as the backbone of production, which is itself the mainstay of the country. 
“A main part of this year’s slogan of production growth concerns the workers’ society,” he said in a meeting with hundreds of workers and labor ministry officials on Saturday, Leader.ir reported. 
He stressed that workers need encouragement and assurance in order to perform their duties regarding the motto of the year, “inflation control and growth of production.” 
“Upgrading the lives of workers and giving them assurance about their job security and easy earning of livelihood would improve the quality of the work and the product,” he said, addressing the authorities and employers. 
Any effort to ameliorate workers’ living standards is, therefore, an investment for greater profit, he added. 
It is also important, according to the Leader, that workers receive a fair share of the work’s income, as they have a greater share in value creation than other factors. 
“Therefore, for better value creation, one must make serious plans for workers’ training and gaining of experience,” he said. 
Ayatollah Khamenei also decried any act of oppression against workers, saying it would undo all good deeds. 
“Oppression is not just non-payment of wages, but lack of action regarding insurance, health, training, innovation and job security is also oppression,” he said. 
He praised Iranian workers’ society for being alert and refusing to be influenced by foreigners’ provocations. 
“They have not been and will not be able to place the workers’ society opposite the system,” he said. 
He acknowledged certain protests in the working environment, such as those against delayed payments, saying they are righteous and can help the government by notifying it of a problem. 
“Fortunately, in all protests, the worker’s society have declared its separation from the enemies and underlined its friendship with the system, therefore not allowing ill-wishers to abuse their demonstrations,” he said. 
The Leader later stressed the importance of creating jobs for educated youth who are either unemployed or have unrelated jobs.
“All these youth are the country’s wealth,” he said, calling on political, economic and social experts to aid the government so as to prevent these capitals from remaining unused. 

Essence of Life 

Ayatollah Khamenei said it is “work” that provides all the requirements of life, so it is in fact the essence of the society’s life, which would not exist without workers. 
“The value of worker is that of the society and people’s essence of life,” he said. 
Any income, therefore, should be earned directly via work, he emphasized. 
“In view of Islam, income must be earned from effort and work, so wealth that is a windfall or has been earned through bargaining, dealership, bribery, usury and economic rentier is against the order of God,” he said. 
He called for efforts to develop such culture that values a direct link between work and income, which is a very difficult and long-term, but completely essential task. 
“Any step in the fight against corruption, is a step toward creating this culture,” he said. 
Lack of courage to stand up to corrupt people inside the country would cause a loss of courage to counter foreign enemies’ bullying, he noted. 
At the beginning of the meeting, Labor Minister Solat Mortazavi presented a report of his ministry’s plans and activities.