Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Jordan (Ratification: 1968)

The Committee notes the Government’s report. It further notes the comments submitted by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which principally refer to matters previously raised by the Committee as well as to the situation of migrant workers in export processing zones, who, according to the ITUC, are denied trade union rights and are subject to poor working conditions, threats of deportation and acts of violence. The Committee requests the Government to submit its observations thereon.

1. Scope of the Convention. Previously, the Committee had taken note of the allegations made by the ITUC in 2006 concerning the denial of trade union rights to migrant workers, including in the export processing zones, and had also referred to certain classes of agricultural workers excluded from the provisions of the Labour Code. In this regard, the Committee notes the Government’s statement that the Ministry of Labour has supported the efforts of the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions (GFJTU) to reach out to migrant workers by helping to establish migrant workers’ committees in the export processing zones that are associated with GFJTU offices set up in those areas. The Government adds that it has also responded to allegations of poor treatment of migrant workers by, inter alia, increasing the number of labour inspectors and appointing staff to provide them with logistical support, placing complaints boxes in most factories and offices employing migrant workers, and announcing the beginning of hotline services in seven languages to field work-related complaints. As concerns legislative measures, the Government indicates that in consultation with the social partners it has formulated amendments to the Jordanian Labour Code, the purpose of which is to include migrant workers, domestic workers, and all categories of agricultural workers within the scope of the Labour Code’s provisions. The Government further states that the draft amendments have been referred to the Council of Ministers, in order to begin the process of adopting the legislative and constitutional measures for their promulgation. The Committee notes this information with interest. It expresses the hope that the amendments to the Labour Code will, in the near future, ensure the guarantees of the Convention to the categories of workers mentioned and requests the Government to transmit a copy of the amendments to the Labour Code once they are adopted.

2. Article 2 of the Convention. Need to provide for rapid appeal procedures, coupled with effective and dissuasive sanctions against acts of interference. The Committee had previously recalled that, to ensure that measures prohibiting acts of interference receive the necessary publicity and are effective in practice, the relevant legislation should explicitly lay down provisions for rapid appeal procedures, coupled with effective and dissuasive sanctions against acts of interference in order to guarantee the application in practice of Article 2 of the Convention (see General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 232). Noting that the Government provides no information respecting this matter, the Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures in order to adopt legislative provisions providing for rapid appeal procedures and sufficiently dissuasive sanctions against acts of interference and to keep it informed in this respect.