AMMAN — In 2022, Tamkeen for Legal
Aid and Human Rights received 291 complaints from female workers across the
Kingdom, Amman Net reported.
اضافة اعلان
In a paper published on the occasion of
International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 every year, the NGO said that
the majority of complaints — 139 in all — were related to the withholding of wages.
This was followed by passport confiscation at 114 complaints, vacation day
suspension and long working hours at 76 complaints each, lack of social
security enrolment at 75 complaints, and denial of overtime pay at 69 complaints.
In terms of sectors, 188 complaints were submitted
by domestic workers, followed by 18 from the beauty sector, 16 from factories, 10
from the education sector, and 59 from the hygiene, sales, agriculture,
restaurants, services, pharmacy, and mechanics sectors, combined.
Nationality and ageJordanian women filed 55 of the complaints,
followed by Filipinas with 54 complaints. Workers from Ghana submitted 44
complaints and those with Ethiopian nationality submitted 30, while Bangladeshis
and Ugandans filed 23 complaints each, Sri Lankans 20, and Nepalese 19. The remainder of the complaints were
distributed among those of Syrian, Yemeni, Egyptian, Indonesian, Pakistani,
Kenyan, and Sudanese nationalities.
In terms of age, the majority of complaints
came from women in the 18–35 year age group, at 146 complaints, while 90
complaints were received from those aged 35 and above and three complaints were
received from women under 17 years of age. Tamkeen also received 52 complaints from
women who did not disclose their ages.
Challenges for women in Jordan’s labor
marketThe paper addressed the challenges facing
working women in the Jordanian labor market, including access to decent job
opportunities and gender-based wage discrimination. According to estimates from
the Department of Statistics for the year 2018, the gendered wage gap in the
Kingdom was 18 percent in the public sector and 14.1 percent in the private
sector.
Meanwhile, work in informal professions
does not involve a contractual agreement, which also signifies a lack of
workers’ rights, either due to fear of employers or the absence of legal
knowledge concerning protection channels.
Likewise, many women in unregulated
professions are paid low wages that may dip below the minimum wage, ranging
between JD100 and JD200 for Jordanian women and less than JD150 for
non-Jordanian workers. Working hours can reach 16 hours per day, without overtime
pay or annual leave and official holidays.
RecommendationsThe paper recommended that laws be
activated to regulate women’s work and eliminate all forms of discrimination,
such as the wage gap. It called on all governmental and non-governmental
agencies to consider the figures related to women’s work in the labor market,
to re-examine and formulate educational and functional plans, programs, and
strategies that are in line with the needs of the labor market.
It also called on the authorities to
provide women with access to work centers to empower them economically and
socially, and to conduct studies on the challenges facing women's labor
participation and possible solutions that can be implemented to reduce these
challenges.
Other measures to support and empower women
in Jordan include offering flexible work and providing support services for
working women such as nurseries and safe means of transportation, the paper
said.
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