October 21,2009

Members of the board of directors for Haft-Tappeh's sugarcane labour association are on the verge of getting fired or being imprisoned

According to reports, threats and pressure on board members and labour workers from Shoosh intelligence service has increased. Since the morning of Wednesday October 21, company guards prohibited four members of the board from going to work (the guards work under the control of Shoosh intelligence service).

Fereydoon Nikoo-Fard, Jalil Ahmadi, Ramezan Alipour, and Mohammad Heydari-Mehr are the workers who are prohibited from going to work. They were sentenced to six months of jail time with physical (also psychological) punishment and six months of jail time with partial bail. Although Heydari-Mehr's sentence was different. He received four months of jail time with physical punishment and eight months of jail time with partial bail.

Mr. Ali Nejati, the head of the board of directors of the sugarcane labour association was fired and prohibited from going to work. Over the past six months he has not received any payments or benefits. He has objected to the illegal and inhumane firing sentence. The office claims his discharge is due to long periods of absence, even though he was arrested by the intelligence service.

Davoodi, the head of the company guards, who is in charge of suppression of labour workers by the order of the intelligence service, prevented workers from entering the company premises. Recently, he doubled the number of guards from 50 to 100. The guards are heavily concentrated, especially in the areas where labour workers are present. The guards report all the gatherings. To prevent any strike of labour rights or protests against suppression, spies have been sent among the labour workers to increase pessimism and distrust among them. Crushing moves against the labour workers are executed under the control of Madadi, the president of the company.

After hearing the ban on employee entrance to the office and the rumors of them being arrested, workers became angry and declared that if these actions continue, they would begin vast protests and strikes in the coming days. They have asked for the charges to be dropped against the labour workers and the return of Ali Nejati. They have also asked for the payment of Nejati's past month's salary and an apology from the company's president to the board members in front of labour workers. They have also asked for the firing of Davoodi, the head of the suppression guards of the company.

The labour workers haven't received their salary for two months and overtime hours have decreased. They are left to financially struggle.

Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran condemn the heavy charges from the prison, the expelling and prohibition of board members and labour workers from their work. HRDAI asks ILO and IUF to protect and defend the members of the sugarcane labour association at work, since they are members of these unions.