More than 50 civil society organizations and labour unions launched a campaign calling for fundamental amendments to the amended labour law, which is currently under revision by the Senate, after being approved by the House of Representatives. These organizations confirm that some amendments to the law violate the Jordanian Constitution and do not provide the sufficient protection for workers, especially with regard to the workers' rights to join trade unions and the right to collective bargaining.
A press statement released by the campaign stated that during the recent months, several groups including the civil society organizations and trade unions tried to emphasize that the essence of the labour law should be on the workers’ rights to organize trade unions and bargain collectively by allowing them to form trade unions, which is guaranteed by the Jordanian Constitution, as well as by the international conventions ratified by Jordan for decades. However, this right is restricted in the Labour Law, thus it restricted the practice of this right by only 17 trade unions and deprived the rest of the workers of the freedom to establish and choose the trade unions they wish to establish or join.
The statement stated: "Although that the open articles in the Labour Code are 39, including the articles on the trade union organization such as Article 98, as well as articles 44, 2 and 116, the recent amendments were rather restrictive, more than fair and equitable for workers. In fact, the amendments to the articles on the definition of labour dispute and collective bargaining will adversely affect the future of labour relations and working conditions in Jordan and will force workers to further protests because of closing the doors of dialogue and collective bargaining. "
The statement gave an example of the drawbacks of the amendments passed by the deputies, as it is restricting some of the workers’ rights, such as the trade unions’ organization and collective bargaining. Moreover, the deputies added a condition to the law that would oblige unions to ratify their regulations from the Ministry of Labour, which they considered as a violation of the international standards committed by the Kingdom, including the ILO agreements (98) and (87) on the freedom of association, the right to organize and collective bargaining.
#Jordan #amendments #labour_law #bargaining
English 
العربية