Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Jordan (Ratification: 1966)

National Steering Committee for Pay Equity. The Committee welcomes the Government’s indication that the National Steering Committee for Pay Equity (NSCPE) was granted permanent and official status pursuant to a ministerial decree of 15 May 2013. The Committee also notes the detailed information provided by the Government regarding the activities carried out by the NSCPE and its subcommittees, including the recently established media and promotion subcommittee. It notes, in particular, the legal review which was conducted by the NSCPE, with the support of the ILO, and aimed at identifying and documenting the legal and practical obstacles hindering the achievement of pay equity in Jordan, and providing recommendations (Towards pay equity: A legal review of Jordanian national legislation, 2013). In this regard, the Committee notes that an action plan was prepared in order to implement the study’s recommendations for improvement at legislative level, and that a workshop was organized in July 2013 by the Ministry of Labour, the NSCPE and the National Committee on Child Labour, in collaboration with the ILO, in order to discuss specific amendments to the Labour Law, 1996, and its related Interim Act of 2010, prior to their consideration by Parliament. The Committee notes further that initiatives were organized by the media and promotion subcommittee with a view to raising awareness of pay and employment equity issues, including through mass media and a recently developed pay equity website. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on the work of the NSCPE and its subcommittees, including with regard to initiatives to raise awareness of equal remuneration between men and women for work of equal value among workers, employers and their organizations, as well as the general public, and the impact of such measures.

Article 1(a) of the Convention. Additional allowances in the public service. Recalling its previous comments with regard to the limitations on women’s access to family allowance pursuant to section 2 of the Civil Service Regulations No. 30 of 2007, the Committee considers that a difference in allowances, based on sex, is direct discrimination with respect to remuneration and contrary to the Convention (see General Survey on fundamental Conventions, 2012, paragraph 693). The Committee also notes that the NSCPE legal review recommends amendments to the Civil Service Regulations, including section 25 (Towards pay equity: A legal review of Jordanian national legislation, page 12). The Committee asks the Government to amend the Civil Service Regulations No. 30 of 2007 to ensure that women and men are entitled to all allowances, including family allowance, on an equal basis.

Article 1(b). Equal remuneration for work of equal value. For a number of years, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the need to give full legislative expression to the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value. In this regard, the Committee notes the Government’s reference to findings of the NSCPE legal review, as well as the recommendations of the July 2013 workshop, which confirm the importance of such provisions. The Committee welcomes the amendments proposed in the NSCPE legal review, which provide for equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value “including work of a different type”, and makes reference to the use of objective job evaluation methods to determine if jobs are of equal value. The Committee urges the Government to take the necessary steps to give full legislative expression to the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value. The Committee also asks the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged to promote objective job evaluation methods in the public and private sectors.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.