Project aims to shine a light on and support workers’ rights

AMMAN — Tamkeen Fields for Aid inaugurated a new project last week aimed at the improvement of the socioeconomic rights of marginalised workers in northern and central Jordan, which will seek to raise awareness of labour regulations and of the rights they grant to both private and public employees. 

The project will run for a period of two years and it includes activities such as legal aid and consultations with employees facing violations in the field, mediation in conflicts among workers and their employers, and capacity building training for government officials and labour inspectors, according to organisers. 

The initiative is the third project funded under the Dutch embassy’s Human Rights Fund (MRF) 2018, which supports non-profit organisations that “defend, protect and promote human rights” with grants that amount to a total of 1 million euros annually.

The trainings will focus on the status of migrants in the country and the legal context of their work and residence in Jordan, as well as issues related to combating human trafficking and forced labour. 

 “I don’t believe that there is only one civil society, but rather that there is a multiplicity of groups that need to be empowered to achieve national development,” Dutch Ambassador to Jordan Barbara Joziasse told The Jordan Times in an interview, which followed the latest call for applications to the MRF. 

“So far, we have supported over 75 projects in the fields of gender equality, climate change, economic rights [and] Internet freedom, among others,” the diplomat said, noting that this year’s themes focus on freedom of expression and social and economic rights.

“Tamkeen project’s main aim is to tackle informal work in agriculture and construction sectors to explore the violations workers experience,” the embassy said in a recent statement, pointing out that the organisation will launch an awareness campaign on the status of vulnerable workers and the issues that they are facing.

 “Our objective is to reach the relevant stakeholders in order to work with them in alleviating the status of these workers,” Tamkeen Director Linda Al Kalash told The Jordan Times, stressing the need to “create better informed policies and strategies addressing the issues faced by these workers”.

Agriculture, construction and the informal economy will be the sectors targeted by the project, according to organisers. 

 “These sectors were specifically chosen due to the high number of workers in them and the various violations they face,” Kalash said, noting that “these violations include being subjected to numerous forms of verbal, physical and sexual abuse in the workplace, long working hours, deprivation from their weekly days off and annual leave, delays in the payment of their wages and the confiscation of personal documents the case of migrant workers”.