Aqaba Container Terminal apologises for suspending operations

AMMAN — The Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT) company sent a letter to its clients on Monday apologising for the halt in its operations due to “illegal industrial actions” by its workers that started on December 1.

In a statement posted on its website, ACT announced the procedures that will be followed during the work stoppage, expressing hope it will end as soon as possible.

ACT said it will stop calculating storage fees for imported containers that arrived at the terminal during the period of the work stoppage. 

“This will apply to all boxes discharged from a vessel before December 1 and gated-out between December 2 and 31,” the statement said.

The company said it will give an additional seven days of storage for free for exporting loaded and empty containers “which loading had to be rolled to a next vessel because the planned vessel had to omit Aqaba since December 1”.

ACT will also “waive the COD charges” on full and empty containers which “could not load on a planned vessel because the vessel had to omit Aqaba” since the work stoppage began last week.

The dispute between ACT management and employees has not been resolved yet despite a Labour Court ruling announced on November 10.

The work stoppage is the third this year, after employees went on strike in July and October demanding better pay and benefits. The strikes ended after management and staff said they reached agreements brokered by MPs.

Employees at ACT agreed to work on the new eight-hour shift management wanted, but police forces denied the workers entry to the terminal, an ACT employee claimed Monday.

“ACT workers accepted the new shift system provided that detained employees are released, and those who were dismissed return to work,” Hamzeh Basiouni, an ACT employee, told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Basiouni said 33 employees have been arrested since December 1, the day marking the beginning of this dispute, with authorities releasing 30 of them.

“The three who are still detained are Bilal Hawamdeh, Mohammad Matileh and Basem Mawajdeh,” Basiouni said, adding that their detention is “illegal” after the Labour Court dropped all charges against them.

He also claimed the 23 employees were “illegally dismissed from ACT” on the second day of the strike, noting that they have to receive two warnings before they are let go according to ACT regulations, which stipulate that an employee shall be dismissed after being absent for 10 consecutive days.

Basiouni claimed that workers are trying to get back to work, but the ACT management refuses.

The ACT management was unavailable to comment despite several attempts by The Jordan Times to contact them.

The company said in the statement that “some workers are still engaging in illegal industrial actions which impede the flow of containers through our terminal.”

“We sincerely regret the inconveniences caused to you by those behind these illegal actions,” ACT said, addressing its clients.