Suspended prison terms for six Fayyazbakhsh hospital nurses in Tehran after labour protest

Six nurses and staff of Tehran's Fayyazbakhsh hospital have been sentenced to one year's suspended imprisonment for taking part in a labour protest in July–August. According to one of the hospital's nurses, all six must also carry out community service one day a week for six months at centres designated by the judiciary.

The same nurse said those sentenced were warned that if they protest again or get involved in a dispute during the suspension period, their case will be reopened. It had been reported earlier, in September, that one of the six had been acquitted and the other five faced charges such as "spreading falsehoods" and "disturbing public opinion".

The summer protest and the security response

Nurses at Fayyazbakhsh hospital, one of the facilities owned by the Social Security Organisation, protested for three days in front of the emergency department in July–August 2026. They say they had written letters for more than a year asking for higher pay, payment of arrears and better working conditions, without receiving an answer. According to the nurses, the protest was calm and without slogans.

A few days later, six of the nurses' representatives were summoned to the hospital's administration building, where security forces questioned them from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The mobile phones of all six were confiscated and, according to the nurses, two phones have still not been returned after nearly three months. A member of the anaesthesia department was injured during the confrontations, and another nurse was admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit for five days because of stress.

Dismissals, pledges and cut bonuses

According to the nurses, about 100 protesting staff were initially sidelined, and most returned to work only after signing a pledge not to protest. The two or three who did not sign the pledge were let go. The bonuses and performance pay of 10 to 12 of the protesters, between 16 and 28 million tomans each, have not been paid.

Ali Shahabbasi, deputy for treatment at the Social Security Organisation in Tehran province, denied that a court case had been opened and said no one had been dismissed for protesting; however, he acknowledged that the cases of seven staff members had been sent to the administrative violations board.

The sentences come as medical staff at other hospitals have also stopped work over unpaid wages, including radiology staff at Tehran's Ziaeian hospital, who have not been paid for four months. Managers of private hospitals have also reported unpaid debts from insurers.

Six Fayyazbakhsh nurses were given suspended prison terms for demanding their wages and banned from protesting again.