Nearly 150 welders at Tehran Refinery have been fired, and 15 representatives of oil contract workers face dismissal for protesting unpaid wages and demanding better conditions as the government continues to quash dissent.

The 150 workers were fired following demonstrations at the Tehran Refinery when workers protested four months of unpaid wages.

A source speaking to Iran International said they have now been blacklisted by the refinery, barring them from any future employment there.

The Ministry of Intelligence has reportedly pressured the welders, demanding they identify individuals who shared footage of the strike with the media, the source added.

Additionally, Etemad newspaper reported that 15 representatives of third-party contract workers in Iran's oil industry are also facing dismissal for advocating for improved wages and benefits for the estimated 120,000 workers they represent.

The representatives were referred to the supervisory body and have since been summoned for questioning. Two have already been formally dismissed, five are awaiting dismissal orders, and eight others are awaiting summons.

The contract workers have been demanding wage standardization and benefits comparable to employed workers, including shopping vouchers, loans, and access to recreational facilities, since 2022.

Thousands of them held multiple protests in 2022 and 2023 leading to summons and interrogations but failing to achieve any significant changes in their working conditions.

In November, they sent a letter to the National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) management and provincial officials, detailing what they called insulting treatment and requests for unjustified commitments by security personnel in response to their protests.

The workers' representatives told Etemad that the Ministry of Oil has not provided any legal justification for criminalizing the protests.

While dismissals of protesting workers began under former President Ebrahim Raisi, the latest dismissal order was issued under President Masoud Pezeshkian, shortly after a new secretary was appointed to the selection board.

The suppression of labor protests in some private and contracting workshops has been a trend since the 2010s, intensifying in the early 2020s.

Since the uprising of 2022, the government has become even more tough in its reactions to protests, with laborers across a variety of sectors facing dismissal or even legal action for industrial action.

Workers have faced various repercussions including layoffs, wage cuts, restrictions on leave and overtime, fabricated legal cases, prosecution for disturbing public order, demotions, and workplace bans.