Municipal workers to resume strike, rejecting outcome of mayors meeting

AMMAN — An independent union of municipal workers decided late Tuesday to resume  strike today, rejecting the outcome of the mayors meeting earlier on Tuesday, in which they responded to several demands of their employees.

The newly-established union, which led the first strike last month, said in a statement that the workers were disappointed by the decisions and the “passive stands” of senior officials and lawmakers. 

Heads of 26 municipalities on Tuesday decided to approve raising the daily wage of sanitation workers to JD9, complying with the minimum wage rule.

During a meeting at the Ruseifa Municipality offices, mayors also agreed to establish saving funds for municipal employees, where each municipality is obliged to found a fund of its own, without any restrictions on municipalities to establish joint funds, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Municipalities, they agreed, should start immediately drafting necessary regulations with the participation of their employees, before referring these laws to the Legislation and Opinion Bureau to proceed with legal procedures.

Attendees also agreed to establish a housing and social solidarity fund, with optional subscription, and accrediting job titles in the 2019 formation tables, ensuring equality with as peers. The formation table is a set of functions and categories, and the degrees and salaries specified for each government job.

Other decisions include disbursing the “infection allowance” for sanitation workers retroactively, and including it in the 2019 budget, as well as giving those workers who have been in this job for more than two years a daily JD1 raise.

The mayors also decided to appoint workers who started work before January 1, 2014, as full-time employees.

Municipality workers across the Kingdom participated in an eight-day strike some two weeks ago.

There was no mentioning if the municipalities would designate Saturday as a day off, as demanded by workers.