Tehran — Social Security Organization / HSE Management, according to ISNA. National policy on arduous and harmful occupations is undergoing strategic review. The stated aim is to move from early workforce exit toward engineered hazard control, continuous physical, chemical and ergonomic risk assessment, and employer obligations to improve workplace standards.
Safer workplaces rather than shifting costs to insurance funds
Social Security Organization assessments indicate that Article 76 and Note 2 of Article 73 of the Social Security Law have been used to protect people in unfavorable working conditions. However, exclusive reliance on early retirement without parallel occupational-health and safety engineering has allowed unsafe conditions to continue while placing a growing financial burden on pension funds.
Safety and occupational medicine specialists argue that protecting workers cannot mean leaving them exposed to pollutants and hazards in the hope of retirement after 20 years. Labour and production policy should prioritize elimination, substitution and engineering controls at the source.
International models
Comparative studies by the Organization's international affairs directorate covering more than 35 developed countries, including Austria, France, Denmark and Sweden, indicate a shift toward comprehensive occupational health management:
– Individual exposure assessment, illustrated by France: digital health records and accurate contaminant dose recording rather than assigning hazardous status solely to job titles.
– Rehabilitation, occupational medicine and retraining, illustrated by Austria and Denmark: safer reassignment and periodic health monitoring rather than complete withdrawal from work.
– Risk-based insurance premiums: lower employer contributions for improved HSE performance and penalties for workplaces lacking engineering controls.
A proposed four-layer HSE model
The plan reframes the classification under Article 1 of the arduous and harmful occupations regulations: Group A, where harmful conditions can be eliminated, and Group B, where risks are intrinsic.
– Layer 1 — Technical and engineering controls: employers must improve ventilation, insulation, mechanization and processes to address noise, dust, chemicals and ergonomic stress. Occupational-health inspectors verify correction and removal of the harmful-work designation.
– Layer 2 — Electronic health records and exposure measurement: periodic scientific measurement, including noise dosimetry, gas testing and occupational medical examinations, provides the basis for hardship scores rather than registered job titles alone.
– Layer 3 — Flexible management and rotation: benefits may include shorter working weeks, restorative health leave and movement to safer jobs with employment benefits protected.
– Layer 4 — Targeted early retirement: retain early-retirement protection for inherently unmodifiable work, such as certain underground mining and specialist metallurgical processes.
Implementation roadmap
– Short term: establish an integrated workplace-pollutant monitoring platform and hazardous-job database, audit workplaces and classify jobs as correctable, mitigable or intrinsically harmful.
– Medium term: introduce individual occupational exposure accounts and replace the fixed 4% hazardous-work contribution structure with dynamic tariffs reflecting workplace safety compliance.
– Long term: amend labour and social security legislation to establish permanent comprehensive occupational health and multilevel workforce protection.
Conclusion
The proposed welfare and social security approach changes the timing and form of support rather than reducing worker protection. It prioritizes actively protecting health and life during employment through HSE requirements instead of allowing physical harm and relying on premature retirement.
Source links: www.isna.ir
Original publication date (Solar Hijri): 1405/06/13
Author: Dibagostaran Sanat