Striking engineers at ministry warn of ‘escalating measures’

AMMAN — The Education Ministry’s engineers on Sunday began a four-day strike and warned of taking escalating measures if their demands were not approved in the coming Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Sufyan Abusafi, the spokesperson of the Education Ministry’s engineers committee, said that it has been a year since they called for financial benefits and advantages equal to those of engineers in other public sector institutions, but all their calls have so far been met with “delay and procrastination”.

“We provided detailed reports on the legal and financial dimensions of our demands, and they are all guaranteed in the Constitution and in line with the ministry’s and the civil service bureau’s laws,” Abusafi, who is also an electrical engineer at the ministry, told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

During his time as education minister, current Prime Minister Omar Razzaz stressed that the engineers’ demands are “legitimate and justified”, according to Abusafi, who said that they were promised endorsement of their financial benefits two weeks ago, but nothing has happened till now.

Fawzi Masad, vice president of the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) noted that there were negotiations on Saturday to suspend the strike after a meeting between Razzaz and the JEA presidents, until a local news website published news that the education minister will not respond to the engineers’ demands.

“Although the minister said that the remarks are untrue, the engineers decided to carry out their strike,” Masad told The Jordan Times.

Education Minister Azmi Mahafzah, on Saturday published statements in local newspapers that a committee will be formed to discuss the engineers’ demands, which triggered more anger and dissatisfaction among the engineers, according to Abusafi, who said that “the formation of a committee was not convincing because the demands are clear and were discussed and examined several times since last year. Now it is only a matter of execution”.

Mohammad Qatamin, one of the striking engineers working for an Education Ministry’s vocational school in Tafileh told The Jordan Times that “there is not justice at all. Our colleague engineers who work for other ministries receive double our salaries”.

“We are very miserable and struggling in this ministry and we feel we have no rights at all,” added Qatami, an industrial engineer with 27 years of experience, who claimed that his salary is “barely enough to buy simple life necessities”.

“The minister announced a few days ago a pledge of 50 per cent increase to teachers, so what about engineers?” Abusafi asked, pointing out that “there are only 750 engineers working in the Education Ministry and our financial demands will not exceed JD500,000 annually, which would not affect the ministry’s budget as it receives a huge portion of the State budget in addition to funds from other external sources”.

In a talk with the Education Ministry’s Secretary General for Administrative and Financial Affairs Sami Salaytah last week, JEA President Ahmad Samara Zu’bi called on protecting the engineers’ freedom, stressing that engineers on strike would not be punished or prosecuted, according to a video record of the meeting sent to The Jordan Times.

The striking committee’s spokesperson added that they only resorted to strikes after talks and discussions turned out to be in vain, adding that they are keen on not hindering the educational process by any means.

He warned of “shaky protests” in front of the Prime Ministry on Thursday if the Cabinet ignored their demands during its Wednesday session, stressing that a full strike will continue Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Abusafi added that their Sunday strike was only partial, as it was suspended at 11am in respect to His Majesty King Abdullah’s speech during the opening of the ordinary parliamentary session.