Iranian media have reported that an oil worker in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province hanged himself on Wednesday after his repeated appeals to the contractor to pay his overdue wages failed.
According to media and social media reports Omran Roshani-Moghadam who worked as a security guard at F19 oil well of Yadavaran oil field hanged himself at the site of the oil well after making a call to the contractor and saying he was destitute and couldn't feed his family anymore.
A colleague of the young man was quoted by Iran Human Rights News Agency (HRANA) as saying that the contractor, a company named Nazm Afarinan Iman, had not paid his meager monthly wages for two months and when he called them they said they could not pay him. After the call the worker went to the oil well and hanged himself.
Colleagues of the deceased workers at the site of his suicide.
The source that has not been named also said the contractor had forced all its employees to sign a new and very unfair contract with no benefits and still did not pay their monthly wages which was barely sufficient for a week.
Another employee of the company which has a staff of around 250 was quoted by Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) as saying that the deceased had asked for a loan of 5 million rials (about $120) but had been refused.
According to ILNA, the managing director of the company claims that the employees of the company were owed only one month's wages. He also said the Chinese company for which it was a contractor has not paid any money to the Iranian contractor since November when the coronavirus epidemic broke out in China. He also denied the deceased's application for a loan.
Another oil field worker who attempted suicide was saved by colleagues.
There have also been reports of a 12-year-old girl's suicide due to poverty in the deprived province of Ilam and self-immolation of a war veteran in Kermanshah in the past two weeks.
Twitter users have also reported that on Wednesday another oil well security guard in Amidieh attempted suicide but was saved by his colleagues.
All channels of the state television would be reporting these suicides if anything similar had happened in the remotest places in the United States, but sadly this happened in Iran [so no mention of them at all]," a Twitter user wrote.
Another Twitter user said Iran is shipping free gasoline to Venezuela while Iranian oil workers go unpaid.