Fertiliser company employees protest decision to ‘liquidate it’

AMMAN — Around 350 workers of the Jordan Abyad Fertilizers & Chemicals Company (JAFCCO) protested in front of the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) on Tuesday over overdue salaries and a decision to liquidate JAFCCO.

The decision was taken by the Bahraini investor, which owns around 62 per cent of the shares, liquidating the company and paying the workers one month’s salary in accordance with Article 31 of the Labour Law, the workers’ representative Mohammad Bdeirat told The Jordan Times. 

JAFCCO, based in Karak’s Abyad area, is owned by three main partners: the Bahraini investor, the JPMC (22 per cent) and the Arab Mining Company (12 per cent). 

The workers requested the three months overdue salaries and the one month pay which the Labour Law requires as a result to the company’s liquidation. 

Bdeirat said JPMC Chairman Amer Majali talked to them and said that he tried to contact the Bahraini investors to transfer the workers dues but had failed to reach them. 

As a minor partner, the JPMC cannot take measures to address the issue neither by recruiting the laid-off workers nor by paying them the overdue salaries, Majali said, according to Bdeirat.

Majali and other concerned executives were not available for comment.

“It is a social disaster 368 families will suffer because of lay-offs,” said Bdeirat, who worked as a chemist at the JAFCCO. 

The workers will protest in front of the Prime Ministry this week, according to the representative.