Labour leaders call for allowing foreign workers to join unions - Jordan  

AMMAN — Labour leaders on Thursday called on the government to allow expatriates to join labour unions, saying this was the only way they could protect their rights.

"It is about time that the government changes its mind and allows foreigners to join labour unions, as they are subjected to all kinds of abuse from employers," said Fathallah Emrani, president of the General Trade Union of Workers in Textile Garment and Clothing Industries.

He said labour leaders have been urging the government "for years" to give the go- ahead to foreigners.

Emrani said the government needed to amend certain legislation, however, in order to pave the way for hundreds of thousands of Arab and foreign workers to join labour unions.

He noted that labour unions plan to send a petition to the government detailing the importance of such a decision.

"The world has changed, and we have to change with it. We are committed to a number of international agreements that bind us to protect foreign workers," he told The Jordan Times.

Officials from the Labour Ministry recently indicated they might allow foreign workers "to form their own labour unions." But their remarks fell short of detailing any mechanism with a specific timetable for such a move.

Sources at the ministry and labour unions said the government is being "pressured" by the US to allow foreign workers to join labour unions to protect their rights.

The American move comes in light of a recent report by the US-based National Labour Committee (NLC), which said foreign workers in the country, mainly the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) suffer from abuse.

The report said the labourers are overworked, and physically and sexually abused, in addition to suffering other abuses.

The government formed a special committee to investigate the findings of the NLC report, which revealed that "violations do exist in some factories in terms of overtime hours. Labourers work above the legal maximum and they are not paid according to the legal overtime, which is 125 per cent of the hourly wage."

In addition, some establishments do not observe the official holidays/weekends in terms of wage calculation for these days and several do not comply with social security laws, instead deducting the employers' contribution from the workers' wages, according to the committee's findings.

The ministry's inspectors also found that some QIZ establishments employ guest workers without work permits or with expired work permits.

They agreed with the NLC that housing conditions for foreign labourers are substandard — the dormitories, are overcrowded and the sanitary facilities do not fulfil basic standards.

Additionally, some of the factories do not comply with safety and health regulations.

Industry sources said the government wants to protect the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US, which requires that labour rights in Jordan be protected.

Some of the main importers of Jordanian clothing include Wal-Mart, Gloria Vanderbilt, Target and Kohl's.

Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the US, confirmed that it had discovered serious problems with working conditions in some major Jordanian factories.

It is estimated that 44,000 workers are employed in the QIZs, 40 to 50 per cent of them from Sri Lanka, China and other Asian countries.

The QIZ agreement between the US, Jordan and Israel in 1997, designates certain areas in the country as enclaves where products produced in the zone may enter the US market tax, duty and quota-free without the requirement of reciprocal benefits.

The QIZ was established to bolster economic relations between Jordan and Israel after the two countries signing a peace treaty in 1994.

According to official statistics, Jordan is home to more than half a million foreign workers, the majority of whom come from Egypt and Iraq.