Analysis of the Challenges Related to the Labor Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to Create, Maintain, and Develop Job Opportunities (A Focus Group Study in Small Businesses)

Many factors such as the economic, political, and cultural conditions affect the rate of unemployment and the employment level in the country. Howver, the Labor Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran is considered as one of the most important factors has been disregarded in previous studies. Although there is an urgent need to study and analyze the impact of Labor Law on the creation, maintenance, and development of job opportunities at the level of small enterprises, most of the related studies are quantitative in nature and it is not possible to discover the implicit layers of Labor Law challenges. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the underlying levels of the Labor Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran based on the entrepreneurs and experts’ opinions in order to identify its challenges regarding the creation, maintenance, and development of employment opportunities in small businesses; it is also intended to propose suitable solutions to these challenges. Therefore, the main question of the present study is “What are the challenges of the Labor Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to create, maintain, and develop job opportunities in small businesses” and “What solutions can be offered to overcome these challenges”.

In this applied research, focus group method has been used to identify these challenges. The statistical population of the present study included the entrepreneurs and managers of small private businesses and the experts in the field of Labor Law with at least 10 years of work experience. Purposeful sampling method was used to select the participants, and finally 4 focus groups of 35 individuals were formed.

The findings of this study identified four main challenges including starting and developing a new business, productivity and continued operation of small businesses, integration of small businesses and their failure in the market, and women’s employment. In addition, different solutions have been proposed for each of these challenges such as: outsourcing a part of the production process, using legal consultants by the small businesses, reducing job titles in the firm to reduce the number of the workforces, and considering contingency requirements for the recruitment of women.

The results of this study indicated that small businesses should implement two macro strategies in order to address the challenges of the Labor Law: (1) pursuing capacity claims in Labor Law with the help of the legal counselors (such as the Articles 191 and 190) as well as (2) implementation of various scenarios for the employment of the workforce (e.g. proposing temporary employment contracts).