Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Jordan (Ratification: 1966)

Article 1(a) of the Convention. Additional allowances in the public service. The Committee recalls its previous comments that the limitations on women’s access to family allowances pursuant to section 2 of Civil Service Regulation No. 30 of 2007 and the difference in allowance, based on sex, constitutes direct discrimination with respect to remuneration contrary to the Convention (see the General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, 2012, paragraph 693). The Committee recalls that the legal review, Towards Pay Equity: A Legal Review of Jordanian National Legislation (2013) carried out by the National Steering Committee for Pay Equity (NSCPE) recommended amendments to the Civil Service Regulation, including section 25. The Committee notes the adoption of Regulation No. 82 of 2013 concerning Civil Service which repeals the Civil Service Regulation No. 30 of 2007. The Committee notes that section 25(b) of the new Regulation concerning the Civil Service, as amended in 2014 by Regulation No. 96, continues to provide that the family allowance is granted to a married man and in exceptional cases to a woman, if her husband is incapacitated, or if she supports her children or is divorced and does not receive a child allowance for her children below 18 years of age. The Committee notes that the Government indicates that the new Civil Service Regulation applies the principle of equal pay for work of equal value to all civil service employees, irrespective of gender, but recognizes that section 25(b) constitutes a difference in wages between men and women. In light of the recommendations made by the NSCPE legal review, the Committee urges the Government to take steps without delay to amend Civil Service Regulation No. 82 of 2013 to ensure that women and men are entitled to all allowances, including the family allowance, on an equal basis, and to provide information on the progress made to this end.

Article 1(b). Equal remuneration for work of equal value. Legislation. Since 2001, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the need to give full legislative expression to the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value. In its previous observation, the Committee welcomed the recommendations of the legal review undertaken by the NSCPE and the July 2013 workshop to amend the provisions of the Labour Law of 1996, and its related Interim Act of 2010. The recommended amendments provided for equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value “including work of a different type”, and made reference to the use of objective job evaluation methods to determine whether jobs are of equal value. While noting the information provided by the Government regarding the further work undertaken by the NSCPE, and on the system of job description and classification in the public sector, the Committee notes that no steps appear to have been taken to amend the Labour Law of 1996 and the Interim Act of 2010. The Committee is addressing the issues related to the promotion of job evaluation methods in the public and private sector in its direct request. The Committee urges the Government to take the necessary steps to give full legislative expression to the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value. The Committee also reiterates its request to the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged to promote objective job evaluation methods in the public and private sectors.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.