Ammon News - Minister of Labor, Yousef Shamali on Saturday held a meeting with the head and members of the executive office of the General Federation of Jordan Trade Unions (GFJTU).

The meeting, held at the GFJTU headquarters, discussed challenges facing workers due to the repercussions of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, a year since its outbreak.

"The ministry is keen to protect rights of labor of both sexes, and preserve the sustainability of current job opportunities for Jordanians through the programs it offers," Shamali said during the meeting.

He pointed out that the government had provided a number of programs to support and care for workers, including the "Estidama" program aimed at preserving job opportunities in the private sector, which was mainly extended until the end of May 2021.

He added that the government decided to extend this program until the end of this year to enable enterprises operating in most hard-hit sectors and establishments that are not authorized to operate to pay wages owed to their workers and enable them to overcome economic conditions associated with the pandemic.

Shamali noted that, by the end of March, the number of workers benefiting from the "Estidama" program had reached about 100,000 workers working in about 6,300 establishments, and the total amounts disbursed to them amounted to about JD55 million, stressing that the care and protection of workers is always on the top of the ministry's priorities.

"The ministry has also taken mitigation measures and the cabinet has approved to schedule debts of 26,000 borrowers from the Development and Employment Fund, to help project owners to maintain their projects," Shamali noted.

"During the year of the pandemic, the Ministry received more than 85,000 labor complaints related to delaying wages and termination of services, via the Hemaya (Protection) platform," Shamali explained.

He indicated that the ministry has brought 5698 workers back to their jobs out of a total of 9,130 whose services have been terminated, while the services of 3317 workers have been legally terminated without violating defense orders or the labor law.

The minister agreed with the head of the GFJTU and trade union leaders to hold periodic meetings to discuss challenges and demands of workers in their various positions and to maintain permanent coordination between the ministry and the union to foster workers' affairs in various sectors.