Governorate municipality workers’ demands pay off

AMMAN — Governorate municipality workers’ demands for pay raises and better working conditions will be met as of next year in response to the two-week, country-wide strike that took place in October of last year.

The strike, which continued for a little over two weeks, caused sanitation problems in the governorates and ultimately ended in a JD20 raise for all municipality workers as of 2019, with the promise of more reforms.

Waste collectors, in particular, were granted a JD30 to JD45 raise starting in 2019.

A 25-per cent raise for all workers, on the condition of an additional six working hours per week, is to be granted starting in 2020, according to the General Trade Unions of Workers in Municipalities.

“We have not forgotten the workers’ demands since last year, which is why we are trying to make room in the budget for annual raises whenever possible,” President of the General Trade Unions of Workers in Municipalities Hammam Maaytah told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Among the workers’ requests last year was the formation of a savings and real estate fund for them, which Maaytah said “will also be granted soon, after they have passed the same legal channels that the pay raises have”.

Workers at the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) did not participate in the strike and are therefore not included in the raises, as Maaytah said that GAM is independent and has its own budget while the governorate municipalities are included under the Ministry of Municipalities.