JLW report highlights gaps in occupational health, safety

AMMAN — A position paper issued by the Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) on Tuesday, showed that there are still many gaps in occupational health and safety in Jordan.

The paper, issued by JLW (affiliated with Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies) in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on the occasion of the Workers' Memorial Day, which is annually celebrated on April 28, called for conducting a review of all policies regulating the occupational safety and health in the Kingdom, according to a Phenix Centre statement. 

The paper said that penalties mentioned in the Labour Law related to occupational safety and health are not a deterrent for employers who do not provide occupational safety and health tools.

In this regard, the paper said that the fine for employers who violate the law ranges between JD100 and JD500, while the cost of any technical or engineering procedures to protect the safety and health of workers is much higher than that, which makes employers prefer paying fines to ensuring safety. 

The paper showed that many women in Jordan work for jobs that might jeopardise their safety, such as working in factories and the agricultural sectors, which do not provide all types of social protection to women and men. 

Citing statistics by the Social Security Corporation (SSC), the paper said that occupational health and safety accidents in 2020 for the corporation's subscribers dropped to 9,102 compared with 10,072 accidents and occupational diseases in 2019, marking a decline of 9.6 per cent.  

The transformative industries sector is the least likely to apply occupational health and safety measures and accounted for 31 per cent of job injuries in 2020, the paper stated.