'Labour Ministry received 52,000 complaints since pandemic outbreak'

AMMAN — The Labour Ministry received more than 52,000 labour complaints related to wages and lay-offs since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Kingdom until Monday, Labour Minister Nidal Bataineh said on Tuesday.

Inspection teams at the ministry continue to follow up on all complaints the ministry receives on Himaya (protection) platform, and its control room and social media pages, according to a ministry statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The complaints were filed against 11,551 institutions with a total number of 349,763 employees.

Bataineh said 7,853 institutions with 325,871 employees adhered to paying wages during the pandemic following the issuance of Defence Order No. 6, noting that services of 8,287 employees were terminated in the same period.  

The ministry has verified all the complaints it received, which resulted in finding out that 3,121 workers were laid off legally, while 5,043 employees resumed work after their dismissal turned out to be illegal, leaving 123 complaints under investigation, the statement said. 

The ministry also said that it had received 8,225 complaints related to delays in paying wages through the Himaya platform, while 763 institutions were fined as per Defence Order No. 6. 

The minister said that the continued efforts under defence orders and the awareness of the private sector resulted in a decline in the number of institutions that fail to pay wages on time to 953 down from 5,786, noting that all statistics are only related to institutions which complaints were filed against, the statement said. 

In conjunction with activating Defence Order No. 11, the ministry also embarked on inspection campaigns to ensure applying health and safety measures.

In this regard, ministry teams visited 6,215 institutions, which resulted in closing 160 and issuing closure warnings to 715, while committed institutions totalled 5,500, according to the statement, which added that other ministries are also participating in the inspection campaigns.