Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117) - Jordan (Ratification: 1963)

1. Parts I and II of the Convention. Improvement of standards of living. The Committee takes due note of the information provided by the Government’s report received in August 2003 on the programme designed to achieve balanced regional development, the programme aimed at promoting economic and social productivity in relation to the development of rural communities and the promotion of productivity and infrastructures for supporting investment. It asks the Government to keep providing, in its next report, information on the measures taken to ensure that the general principles and the basic aims of the Convention remain a key component of its poverty reduction strategy. Please also refer to the comments formulated in relation with the application of the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122).

2. Part IV. Remuneration of workers. In reply to previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s indication contained in the report received in August 2003 that a tripartite committee to fix minimum wages, provided for in section 52 of the Labour Code, was created in 1999 and issued, in 2002, an order establishing the minimum wage at 85 dinars. This new minimum wage entered into force on 1 January 2003. The Government also indicates that section 54 of the Labour Code specifies the method by which wages are determined in order to examine any cases relating to this matter that could be brought before the courts (Article 10, paragraph 2, of the Convention).

3. Article 11. In reply to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government refers to the definition of wages contained in section 2 of the Labour Code and indicates that section 810 of the Civil Code specifies that a worker’s wages are earned by virtue of a contract whether in cash or in benefit. While the law does not provide for the type of currency in which wages should be paid, the Government specifies that it is customary for wages to be paid in legal tender or directly paid to every worker since it obliges employers to keep registers on wages, in conformity with the decree on registers and section 8 of the Labour Code. Section 5 of the decree on registers provides that the worker has to sign himself/herself upon receipt of wages. With respect to the restrictions on wages in kind, the Government explains that while the law specifies the possibility of paying wages in kind, it should be sufficient and equivalent to its monetary value, and no less than the minimum wage of 85 dinars.

4. Article 12, paragraphs 2 and 3. The Government further indicates in its last report that the Ministry of Labour shall monitor the conditions specified in Article 12 of the Convention, by examining the internal statutes of enterprises on this issue. In this regard, the Committee recalls that Article 12 provides that the maximum amounts of advances on wages, including those which may be made to a worker in consideration of his taking up employment, shall be regulated by the competent authority. Moreover, this authority shall make legally irrecoverable any advance made in excess of the amount laid down. The Committee asks the Government to indicate in its next report the measures taken to give full effect to these provisions of the Convention.