Introduction: In an industrial society, labor became centralized within factories, compelling employers to hire numerous individuals as workers who exchanged their effort for wages to meet the production objectives of the factory. This arrangement soon gave rise to several conflicts, particularly disputes between workers and management, which is a perennial issue in labor relations across different societies. In Iran, as the factory system has expanded and work has become more concentrated in these settings, tensions between employees and employers have emerged as a major social challenge. The persistence of these conflicts has negative consequences for the country. This study aims to examine the conflicts between workers and employers subject to the labor law in terms of the country's industrial indicators.
Method: This study employs a quantitative longitudinal approach, utilizing time-series methodology. To measure conflicts between workers and employers, the total number of complaints was analyzed, and to measure the industrial indicators the added value of the construction industry to GDP, the percentage of total employers, the number of establishment licenses for industrial workshops, women's employment in the industrial sector, production from large industrial workshops, and employment within these workshops were assessed. The time frame analyzed spans from 2001 to 2021, and the required data were collected from the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare (MCLS), the Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Trade (MIMT), the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CBI), and the World Bank (WB). To investigate both short-term and long-term relationships, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was implemented utilizing Microfit software version 5.
Findings: The results indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between the production of large industrial workshops (T-Ratio=5.2, Prob.=.002), the percentage of total employers (T-Ratio=5.7, Prob.=.001), the number of establishment licenses for industrial workshops (T-Ratio=6.7, Prob.=.001), and employment rates in large industrial workshops (T-Ratio=5.6, Prob.=.001) with regard to the number of complaints. Furthermore, findings show a negative and significant relationship between the added value of the industrial sector to GDP (T-Ratio= -4.3, Prob.=.005) and women's employment in the industrial sector (T-Ratio= -5.3, Prob.=.013) with the number of complaints.
Conclusion: This research concludes that workers' complaints against employers are influenced by macro-industrial indicators. Specifically, while the production of large industrial workshops, the percentage of employers, the number of establishment licenses, and the level of employment in large industrial workshops contribute to an increase in complaints, the added value of the industry to GDP and the level of employment of women in the industrial sector notably reduce the number of complaints.