Amman, March 2025
The Jordan Labor Watch has expressed its strong disapproval of the decision by a major governmental water company to terminate the services of a member of the administrative board of the General Trade Union of Workers in Food Industries, considering it a punitive measure based on their union activity.
According to the head of the union, Bushra Al-Salman, the administrative board member had organized a meeting between the union committee and the company's management to discuss some of the workers' demands related to wages and allowances, which had been officially submitted by the union to the company's management. However, the management rejected the meeting just minutes before its scheduled time, leading to an escalation of the dispute. The following day, a decision was issued to terminate the employee's services, effective at the beginning of next April.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Labor Watch considered that terminating the services of the workers' representative in the union within this company can only be understood as an undermining of the freedom of union work and an attempt to weaken the role of labor unions in defending the rights of their members. This decision has raised concerns among the members of the union committee, who are currently considering resigning from the committee for fear of being subjected to similar punitive measures.
The Labor Watch emphasized that this action is a clear violation of Article (108) of the Jordanian Labor Law, which prohibits taking any action against union representatives because of their activity in representing workers. It is also a clear violation of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. (98) concerning the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, which Jordan has ratified. This convention prohibits the dismissal of a worker or prejudice against them in any other way because of their union membership or participation in union activities. In addition, this convention guarantees, in one aspect, the right to union organization, by emphasizing the prohibition of subjecting workers to any form of punishment whatsoever because of their affiliations and union activities.
The Labor Watch indicated that such measures also harm Jordan's reputation in international forums, especially the Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labor Organization, which periodically considers the extent to which countries respect the International Labor Organization conventions that have been ratified.
The Labor Watch demanded that the decision to terminate the services of the workers' representative be retracted, that the restrictions on union work be stopped, and that labor unions be allowed to exercise their role in defending the rights of their members freely and without any restrictions, as part of strengthening the freedom of union organization in Jordan, which suffers from significant legislative restrictions.