Iran’s Labor Minister Hojatollah Abdolmaleki resigned on Tuesday amid daily nationwide protests by pensioners, merchants and workers against soaring living costs.
While it was not clear if Abdolmaleki’s resignation was directly related to the month-long protests, the senior MP, Nasser Mousavi Laregani, blamed his “incompetence” for the unrest.
The semi-official Tasnim news site said his resignation followed “mounting criticism for his handling of the labor market and a meagre rise in the retirement pensions.”
“His failure to create a planned number of jobs and the growing protests over insufficient raises in the retirement pensions had fueled speculations that parliament will impeach him,” Tasnim said in its English-language site.
The Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Security had said it would increase pensions by 57.4% to 55.8 million Iranian rials ($177) a month. But pensioners said it was too little too late to cope with years of inflation.
“The level of distrust is unprecedented as we witness protests and anger of laborers and retirees,” Reuters quoted Laregani as telling the parliament.
He said pensioners had to forsake their dignity and go to the street to make their demands. The blame lies “squarely on Abdolmaleki’s incompetence,” he added.
Social media posts on Tuesday purported to show continued protests in several cities. One unverified post said partial strikes on Monday hit bazaars in the capital Tehran, the central town of Kazerun and in the industrial center of Arak.
