Iranian workers clash with police after rally: report

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian protesters demanding better pay and the resignation of the labor minister clashed with police after a traditional labor Day rally on Tuesday, media reports said.

The incident occurred when some demonstrators took to the streets chanting slogans following the rally at a sports stadium in the capital, Tehran, the ISNA news agency said.

It did not say how many protesters were involved in the clash. The labor news agency ILNA said the protest erupted when police tried to move the demonstrators off the street. There were no reports of injuries and police were not available for comment.

Thousands of people had earlier gathered at the stadium to voice their demands at a peaceful rally, showing discontent with the economic policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.

Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 on a pledge to share Iran's oil wealth more fairly. But critics say his expansionist fiscal policies have only stoked inflation while failing to dent double-digit employment.

"They give us a salary which does not cover our expenses ... they are not paying for our hard work," one protester, Ahmad Mirbakhsh, told Reuters Television.

Mousa Khodadadi from the northern province of Mazandaran said: "They have not paid the workers' salaries for a couple of months ... more than a thousand workers have been laid off."