VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #7687 2830632
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 100632Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4692
INFO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS AMMAN 007687 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
State Pass USTR/Karesh 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ETRD EAID PHUM JO
SUBJECT: First-Ever Labor Forum Held During U.S.-Jordan Free Trade 
Agreement Talks 
 
¶1.  (U) SUMMARY: Jordan's Ministry of Industry and Trade hosted its 
the first-ever Labor Forum as part of the U.S.-Jordan FTA Joint 
Committee 2006 meetings.  Minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT) 
Zu'bi stressed that the GOJ would have "zero tolerance" for labor 
violations, while at the same time re-affirming GoJ support for 
export-oriented sectors like textiles.  Minister of Labor (MoL) 
Salem and AUSTR for Labor Lewis Karesh chaired the meeting. 
Participants included government officials, QIZ estate owners, 
factory owners, representatives of US buyers and chambers of 
commerce, and the ILO.  Representatives of worker rights groups were 
few, highlighting the relatively small impact they have in labor 
discussions to date.  The Minister of Labor used the Labor Forum to 
describe the details of labor reform legislation (reftel) he plans 
to introduce in the December session of Parliament.  He also 
re-iterated the need for greater technical capacity in his ministry. 
 While all present welcomed changes to the current labor law, 
numerous participants urged the government to set a timeline for 
implementation of the proposed reforms which, of course, will need 
to be passed by Parliament. Buyers said they preferred local labor 
to foreign labor, but there were not enough Jordanians willing to 
work and training programs were too weak to recruit capable workers. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) Minister of Industry and Trade Zu'bi began the Labor Forum on 
September 18 by stressing the zero tolerance policy of the GoJ for 
labor violations, while he also reaffirmed GoJ support for 
export-oriented sectors like textiles.   Minister of Labor Bassem 
Salem then briefed participants on a bill to change the current 
labor law.  He  plans to introduce it during the session of 
Parliament that will begin November 28.  Highlights include 
clarification of the definition of wages, working hours, and 
overtime.  Additional changes include stricter penalties - including 
imprisonment - for harassment, sexual assault, and forced labor. 
Coverage under the labor law will also be expanded to include 
domestic workers, a sector of the worker base that is pre-dominantly 
foreign and particularly vulnerable to exploitation. 
 
¶3. (U) Rashed Darwazeh, chairman of JGATE (the textile industry's 
major business association), urged GoJ officials to ensure that 
implementation of legal changes was "realistic" and could be 
implemented "in a realistic time frame."   He said the root of the 
labor problem was the short supply of labor in Jordan, which leads 
owners and investors to condone exploitative labor practices to 
extract higher productivity.  According to Darwazeh, fixing this 
problem should be the primary aim of the government.  A clear 3-5 
year plan from the GoJ that shows how it plans to deal with the 
labor shortage is key to foreign investment.  These sentiments were 
repeated by factory owners and buyer representatives.  An American 
buyer representative at the Forum, Vikas Mehra from Jones New York, 
Inc., went so far as to say that Jones would find it impossible to 
determine the costs for 2007 orders if the Minister did not have a 
more specific plan on the particular legal changes envisioned and 
when they would be implemented.  Mehra noted that Jones New York 
buys almost twenty pescenT of!all4extihmshiglds fo"r|E US.$y^dM 
`hqCpurfig%3 fos(QQ=Panoms8Q)Rk^Q-asw$yQzQ>.Q*Q52M~mQQdA*? id 
4cbWaQpF>n]&Qenforcement process.  All factory owners in attendance were 
supportive of what was being done.  However, they largely 
represented influential companies that had not been negatively 
affected by moves of workers to factories with better working 
conditions. 
 
¶5. (SBU) COMMENT: The lack of worker rights representative groups 
attending the Labor Forum likely limited the potential for negative 
feedback.  Their absence speaks more to the weakness of union 
representation in Jordan - especially as it relates to foreign 
workers - however, than to anyone's exclusion from the session where 
they would have been welcome.  AFL-CIO-affiliated Solidarity Center 
remains the strongest worker advocate group on the ground, and its 
leadership was unfortunately not in country during the Forum. 
Nevertheless, this Labor Forum was the first occasion to bring 
together most of the stakeholders involved in improving the labor 
conditions in Jordan's garment factories.  Post will follow up 
vigorously on the proposed changes to the Labor Law announced at the 
Labor Forum. END COMMENT. 
 
¶6.  (U) This message was cleared by AUSTRs Donnelly and Karesh after 
their departure. 
 
RUBINSTEIN