Iranian nurses face mass arrests as government cracks down on protests

In spite of a dire nursing shortage in Iran, the government continues to crack down on protests demanding better working conditions and pay with mass arrests across the country.

In recent days, several nurses have reported being summoned to the disciplinary committee and handed sentences such as six-month suspensions, exile to other cities where commuting is impossible, non-payment of overtime, and deduction of bonuses.

Mass summoning of nurses to disciplinary committees has also been ongoing in cities like Gilan, Mazandaran, Kerman, and Kermanshah over the past six months as they campaign for better pay and conditions.

In Iran’s Mazandaran province in northern Iran, protesters were this month given “10 days to present a defense” after being accused of forming "illegal gatherings", ILNA reported Sunday.

The head of the Iranian Nursing Organization, Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, said dozens of nurses have been summoned and threatened across the country.

“This has been the policy of the Ministry of Health throughout the country. About 60 nurses have been summoned in Kerman, some in Kermanshah. In different parts of the country, nurses have been summoned and threatened because of expressing their protest,” Sharifi Moghadam said this month.

While Iran's labor law forbids the formation of trade unions, protesters face harsh punishment for peaceful protests. However, amid worsening conditions and an economic crisis, nurses have continued to defy the restrictions in recent weeks.

High job turnover and migration has surged among the profession leaving dangerous shortages but the government remains adamant the protests will be crushed.

On Wednesday, Tejarat News quoted Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, the Secretary-General of the Nursing House as saying that the last three years has seen bans imposed on protests.

"If nurses participate in gatherings and protests, whether inside or outside medical universities, they are immediately summoned to the disciplinary committee," he warned.

Sharifi Moghadam said the Ministry of Health is “passive” regarding the migration of nurses and “indifferent” to staffing shortages in hospitals and healthcare centers.

Nurses have been waiting 17 years for the implementation of the nursing service tariff law. According to Sharifi Moghadam, the law has not been fully implemented; what the ministry claims to have enacted is a mock-up, causing dissatisfaction among nurses who are forced to work more than 120 hours of overtime per month for a mere 200,000 rials (33 cents) per hour.

The law states that overtime should be voluntary, but nurses are coerced into the extensive hours and stripped of their right to protest.

Contract nurses on short-term employment face even harsher conditions with no rights to protest. They work for minimum wages without additional income, forcing them into consecutive shifts that further lower the quality of care they can provide.

The working conditions for Iranian nurses have led to several deaths, suicides, or migration to other countries, especially Oman. Nurse suicides remain ignored by officials, despite the high rate of such incidents. Last month, three nurses died due to overwork, and in April, an Iranian nurse committed suicide due to harsh conditions.

The ministry of health frequently announces the opening of new hospitals across the country. However, many of these hospitals struggle to provide services post-opening due to a lack of human resources.

Last year, Iranian MP Hossein Ali Shahriari reported that around 10,000 healthcare practitioners have left Iran over the past two years, seeking better opportunities in the Arab world as Iran's brain drain continues.

The crisis has also seen top flight academics, teachers and medics flee the ongoing oppression and economic crisis which now means at least one third of Iranians are living below the poverty line.

The secretary-general of the Iranian Medical Society has warned about emigration of elite workforce and professionals.

"Many professors from the country's universities are leaving. Today, important fields such as heart surgery, emergency medicine, anesthesia, and many medical fields do not have volunteer applicants, and residency positions remain vacant," he warned.