Last Thursday, the Phenix Center for Economics & Informatics Studies held a workshop in cooperation with the Workers’ House and with the participation of the stakeholders’ representatives. In fact, they discussed the Social Security Law’s draft amendments, which was discussed in a superficial way and without having an extensive and deep dialogue with the stakeholders, in order to ensure the current social security system.
Some interventions in the workshop considered that the government has so far hampered some of the protectionist systems included in the previous law, such as the health insurance system, which was not implemented by everyone and the insurance against unemployment, since these insurances are one of the basic rights for workers.
Moreover, the draft law included only one good amendment for the military retirees, who were oppressed and marginalized. However, this amendment was issued without the consultation of the stakeholders and without being presented to the board of directors of the Social Security Corporation.
The experts said that the bill included the cancellation of early retirement for the new participants, which should have been preceded by studying of the reasons that lead to early retirement, especially the problem of low wages suffered by the participants in social security, which forced them to resort to early retirement, in order to improve their income.
The bill did not take into account the requirements for the reduction in the inscription fees, which are considered as high, in comparison to other countries, and did not address the lack of coverage for workers from other sectors, mainly, the workers from the informal sector.
Ahmed Awadh, the director of the Phenix Center for Economics & Informatics Studies, said that the most dangerous part of the bill is that it allows the exclusion of workers from some establishments from the social security coverage for up to five years, under the pretext of encouraging them. The encouragement should be through the reduction of subscriptions or the granting of tax exemptions, rather than depriving workers of insurance.
Awadh added that the amendments did not meet the requirements of the International Labour Organization (ILO) No. 102 on the minimum social security, which was ratified by Jordan.
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