AMMAN — Employees of the Social Security Corporation (SSC) went back to work on Monday after suspending their strike for a month.

SSC Director General Maen Nsour told The Jordan Times yesterday that the strike was over and work at all SSC offices across the Kingdom has returned to normal.

“Services to clients at the corporation’s branches are being provided as before,” he said.

Two weeks ago, SSC workers started a sit-in demanding that the government exclude them from the salary restructuring plan for public sector employees.

Last Monday, the employees escalated the sit-in into a general strike to pressure the government into meeting their demands.

An SSC employee, who was among the protesting workers, told The Jordan Times that the staff decided to suspend their strike for a month to give the corporation’s management time to discuss their demands with the government.

The employee, who requested anonymity, indicated that the coordinating committee established by protesting SSC workers will continue its efforts to urge the authorities to exclude the corporation from the restructuring plan.

He stressed that the employees are not concerned that their salaries will be cut under the plan but want to ensure that the SSC, which he said manages around JD5 billion of Jordanians’ money, remains independent from government control.

Commenting on media reports that the SSC management was considering bringing personnel from the Central Bank of Jordan and the Public Security Department to fill in for the striking workers, the source declined to say whether this was the reason behind the decision to end the work stoppage, but pointed out that the employees had continued to provide urgent services to clients while on strike.

Local media outlets reported on Monday that the SSC employees had suspended their strike after hearing that the management was considering deploying around 200 staff members from other government entities to temporarily replace striking staff.