Calls for addressing violations of workers’ rights get louder on Labour Day

AMMAN — On International Labour Day, labour experts are calling for numerous abuses and violations of workers’ rights to be addressed.

The Jordanian Labour Law does not fully correspond to International Labour Standards, and a number of gaps still exist, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Gender Technical Specialist Regional Office for Arab States, Reem Aslan, told The Jordan Times on Monday.


The Jordanian Labour Law grants female workers 70 days paid maternity leave and the Jordanian civil service provides 90 days paid maternity leave for female public sector employees.

Both do not meet ILO standards, Aslan said. She noted that the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), states that a maternity leave should not be less than 14 weeks.


Additionally, the Jordanian Labour Law does not comprehensively define violence and harassment, and is not in line with international labour standards on the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work, she said.
According to ILO Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190), violence and harassment in the world of work refers to “a range of unacceptable behaviours and practices, or threats thereof, whether a single occurrence or repeated, that aim at, result in, or are likely to result in physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm, and includes gender-based violence and harassment”.


The labour law does not provide options for employees to address incidents of violence and harassment in the world of work without terminating employment, an ILO legal gap analysis showed.

According to Aslan, Article 29 of the Labour Law, dealing with sexual harassment and violence at the workplace, also did not mention clear mechanisms to develop adequate complaints and redress procedures, despite the chance to have preventative measures that create “zero tolerance policies”.
“We aspire to create a world of work that is safe for both women and men,” she said.

Yet at the same time, she said that there is a proposed strategy with all relevant stakeholders for addressing violence and harassment in the world of work that is pending, awaiting its adoption by the government. “This is a positive step forward,” she noted.

Director of the Phenix Centre for Economics and Informatics Studies (PCEIS) Ahmad Awad believes that labour-related abuses that foreign workers face are similar to those violations faced by Jordanian workers. Such abuses include discriminatory pay, delay in receiving payments, lack of occupational health and safety requirements, among other violations.

“Many Jordanian labourers are underpaid and forced to work under unsafe conditions. However, migrant workers are more vulnerable to extortion due to the sponsorship system which is still prevalent in the country,” Awad added.

He noted that domestic workers are disproportionately affected, and are usually cut off from receiving healthcare coverage and in most cases their mobility is restricted by their sponsor, which is simply “modern slavery” and despite the government’s continuous efforts in tackling labour rights violations and enhancing the work environment, there is still difficulty in protecting domestic workers whose work is home-based.

President of the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions Mazen Maaytah said that there is a decline in labour rights across almost all sectors during the current phase.

He emphasised the need for urgent action to guarantee decent working conditions in Jordan’s labour market.

His recommendations also echoed Awwad’s, noting that “there are still poor working conditions in many enterprises and businesses despite the many improvements accomplished by the government”. 

“Significant number of workers are not enrolled in social security, work extra hours and are in workplaces that lack adequate safety requirements,” he added.