Agreement signed to increase local workforce participation in bakery sector

AMMAN — The Ministry of Labour on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to grant bakery businesses permits to employ foreign workers in exchange for hiring Jordanians.

The MoU was signed on Saturday by Minister of Labour and Minister of State for Investment Affairs Maen Qatamin, Head of Bakery Owners Association Abdulelah Al Hamawi, and the representative of food industries in the Jordan Chamber of Industry (JCI) Mohammad Al Jitan, in the presence of the ministry’s Secretary General Farouq Al Hadidi.

The goal of the agreement is organising the Jordanian labour market and employment in the bakery sector, the ministry’s spokesperson Mohammad Zyoud said in a statement sent to The Jordan Times.

He added that these decisions allow small bakeries with traditional ovens to employ up to six non-Jordanian workers by renewal, change of employer or direct recruitment from abroad, provided that Jordanians, registered with the Social Security Corporation, are employed at the institutions and that the number of foreign workers directly recruited from abroad does not exceed four.

These decisions grant bakeries with automatic and semi-automatic production lines non-Jordanian employment in cases of renewal, recruitment and change of employer, with two non-Jordanian workers compared with one Jordanian worker registered with the Social Security Corporation, Zyoud noted.

He added that the employer must provide coverage of non-Jordanian workers in social security within 30 days from entering the Kingdom.

“The MoU obliges the Bakery Owners Association and the representative of the bakery sector in the JCI, within three months of the signing date, to sign agreements with the Vocational Training Corporation, to specify the occupations in demand from the bakery sector and to train Jordanian job seekers in these occupations with the aim of employing them in the sector,” Zyoud added.