Amman, Tuesday, May 19,2026
A report issued by theJordan Labor Watch, affiliated with the Phenix Center for Economic and InformaticsStudies, warned against the rapidly increasing reliance of companies andinstitutions in Jordan on what are commonly referred to as “support servicecompanies” or “outsourcing companies”. The report stressed that this model isbeing widely used to restructure the labor market in ways that reduceoperational costs at the expense of workers’ rights and job stability.
The report noted thatthis form of employment is no longer limited to secondary or temporary work,but has expanded to include core operational and technical jobs across varioussectors, including electricity and energy, healthcare services, security andprotection, telecommunications, mining, and logistics. In many cases,outsourced workers perform the same duties as permanent employees within majorcompanies, yet under less favorable working conditions in terms of wages,social protection, and job security.
According to thereport, the expansion of outsourcing in Jordan reflects a broader global trendin which large corporations increasingly rely on intermediary companies to hireworkers in order to reduce expenses related to wages, social securitycontributions, and long-term employment obligations.
The report also pointedout that international reports, including those issued by the InternationalLabour Organization, have warned that this shift has contributed to theexpansion of precarious work and the decline of stable, long-term employmentmodels, as employment-related risks are increasingly transferred from companiesto workers themselves.
The report explainedthat one of the most dangerous consequences of this model is the creation of adual labor market within the same institution. Permanent employees enjoy higherwages, social protection, and greater job stability, while outsourced workersoften perform nearly identical tasks under weaker conditions, with lower wages,fewer guarantees, and limited opportunities for professional advancement. This,the report argued, undermines workplace fairness and widens inequalities withinthe same workplace.
The report furtherwarned that restructuring labor relations through outsourcing companies hascontributed to the expansion of the “working poor” phenomenon - workers whosewages are insufficient to meet basic living needs despite working full-time.
It also highlightedthat this model weakens levels of social protection, whether through theunderreporting of wages to social security schemes in some cases, or throughdisparities in the quality of health insurance coverage and compensation betweenworkers operating at the same site. Such practices negatively affect futurepensions and broader social security outcomes.
The report emphasizedthat the growing dependence on outsourcing companies weakens job security dueto the widespread use of temporary contracts and the ease with which workerscan be dismissed. It also pointed to the lack of clarity regarding legalresponsibility between the principal company and the intermediary company.Moreover, the model limits workers’ ability to organize collectively and demandtheir rights because of the fragility of their employment status and thefragmented nature of contractual relationships, thereby reshaping the balanceof power within the labor market in favor of employers.
The report explainedthat the expansion of outsourcing companies in Jordan has been closely linkedto restructuring policies, privatization, and the growing use of externalcontracting across many public, semi-governmental, and private institutions aspart of efforts to reduce operational expenditures. In practice, however, thishas transformed a significant number of relatively stable jobs into moreprecarious and less protected forms of employment.
The report also notedthat the expansion of outsourcing companies did not occur independently ofgovernment policies and regulations. In 2024, the government introduced tworegulatory frameworks that broadened the scope of this type of employment: TheRegulation on Licensing Companies Supplying Jordanian Workers to ServiceSeekers, and the Regulation on Licensing Mediation Companies for the Employmentof Jordanians Inside and Outside the Kingdom. According to the report, thisreflects an official trend toward regulating and expanding the role ofoutsourcing and labor mediation companies in the Jordanian labor market.
In its recommendations,the Jordan Labor Watch called for a comprehensive review of the legal frameworkgoverning outsourcing companies, stricter oversight, and the enforcement of theprinciple of “equal pay for equal work,” stressing the need to ensure that suchcompanies do not become a mechanism for circumventing workers’ rights.
The report alsostressed the importance of holding major companies jointly accountable for therights of workers employed through intermediary companies, strengthening tradeunion freedoms and representation for outsourced workers, and linkingcontracting standards to decent work principles and fair wages.
The report concluded bywarning that the continued expansion of this model without effective regulationgrounded in decent work standards would deepen labor market precarity in Jordanand widen inequality among workers, calling for renewed commitment to theconcept of decent work as a foundation for social and economic stability.