Refinery engineers to start open-ended strike Sunday

AMMAN –– Engineers at the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) are set to start an open-ended strike on Sunday demanding better pay, a move described as “illegal” by the management of Jordan’s sole fuel supplier.

According to Mustafa Momani, spokesperson of those threatening to go on strike, 180 engineers want their basic salaries to be increased by 25 per cent so they can be equal to their peers in other mining firms such as the potash and the phosphate companies. 

Momani told The Jordan Times over the phone that the planned strike will not affect fuel distribution to gas stations in the country.

The spokesperson said the strikers also have other administrative demands, foremost of which is not renewing the contracts of engineers who reached the retirement age of 60 years. 

Over the past years, the JPRC management has been renewing the contracts of six employees aged over 60, with salaries ranging between JD4,000 and JD5,000 a month, Momani charged, adding that the cost of meeting the engineers’ demands would not exceed JD50,000 a year.

“By sending the six engineers to retirement, the refinery can meet our demands and still save money,” he said, adding that the strike will take place at JPRC premises in Zarqa, some 22km east of Amman. 

But JPRC CEO Abdul Karim Alaween described the planned strike as illegal, as the engineers received “unprecedented” pay benefits on March 26.

Their salaries were raised by 15 per cent of the basic wages in addition to increasing the cost of living allowances from JD145 to JD175 a month, Alaween told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

He said an agreement on these benefits –– which included all JPRC workers –– was signed by management and the association representing refinery workers, and sponsored by the government and Parliament. 

Alaween added that the workers were also granted other benefits, such as raising the allowance for experience and university scholarships for employees, in addition to a 5 per cent increase in the annual raise. 

The refinery CEO accused the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) of being part of the problem, by inciting engineers to go ahead with their strike. 

“Employees of the refinery should refer to their management whenever they have demands and should not listen to outsiders,” he said. 

But Momani said the JEA is only defending the rights of its members. 

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, JEA President Abdullah Obeidat called on the JPRC management to meet the demands of the engineers, which he described as fair and just. 

The JEA called on engineers at JPRC not to go to work and to gather in a tent that will be erected near the refinery’s entrance.

Alaween said the management will take stiff legal measures against those who call for the “illegal” strike and those who take part in it, as it would undermine energy security in the Kingdom.