Labour Ministry received 47,323 complaints since coronavirus outbreak — Bataineh

AMMAN — The Labour Ministry has received 47,323 complaints related to wages and lay-offs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Labour Minister Nidal Bataineh said on Monday.

Bataineh, during a press conference at the National Centre for Security and Crisis Management, said that these complaints were filed against 10,811 institutions employing a total of 330,452 workers.

The minister said that a total of 6,356 employees were laid off during the pandemic, including 4,141 who were reinstated and 2,054 whose services were terminated legally without violating defence orders. 

A total of 164 cases are still under investigation, he added.   

As for a campaign to ensure adherence to the regulations of Defence Order No. 11, Bataineh said that ministry personnel had visited a total of 4,921 institutions, issued closure warnings to 549 and closed 112.

He noted that the ministry had received 1,365 complaints against private schools, including 1,165 related to wages and 200 for mass lay-offs.

The ministry has detected 2,200 teacher lay-offs, of which 1,350 returned to their jobs, according to Bataineh.

 A total of 59 fines were issued against violating private schools, the minister said.

Regarding the platform launched for guest workers willing to return to their countries with exemptions for fines, the minister said that a total of 32,046 workers have registered on the platform, including 18,533 who had already left Jordan by Sunday.