Labor Ministry Closes Cotton Craft Factory Due to Repeated

UNCLAS AMMAN 000261

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EEB/TPP/ABT, NEA/ELA, NEA/RA, DRL, G/TIP
STATE PASS TO USTR (CMILLER, AROSENBERG, LKARESH)
COMMERCE FOR ITA/OTEXA MARIA D'ANDREA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB ETRD EAID KTEX ECON JO
SUBJECT: Labor Ministry Closes Cotton Craft Factory Due to Repeated
Labor Violations

REFS: A) 07 Amman 4991
B) 07 Amman 4166

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE USG.


1. (U) On January 16, Jordan's Ministry of Labor (MOL) shut down
the "Cotton Craft" factory in al-Tajamouat Qualifying Industrial
Zone (QIZ) in Sahab after repeated labor violations were identified
during MOL inspections and cited in National Labor Committee (NLC)
reports (reftels).


2. (SBU) MOL Advisors confirmed to Econoff that the MOL had been
closely monitoring and working with factory management on improving
labor conditions at Cotton Craft (CC) since the end of 2006.
Various problems included non-payment of overtime (OT) wages, OT
hours, physical abuse, and poor dormitory facilities. In May 2007,
CC supervisors were fined by a Jordanian court for slapping workers.
In June 2007, the company was sold, and MOL worked with the new
management to bring the factory into compliance.


3. (SBU) Although all back wages had been paid as of October 2007,
MOL decided to shut down the factory after learning that the wages
for November and December 2007 had again not been paid to
approximately 150 workers. The new owner reportedly had accumulated
debts, and could not meet financial obligations. MOL confirmed to
Econoff that the Jordanian government has assisted in transferring
the unpaid, predominantly Bengali workers to other factories. Since
the payment of wages is a contractual issue, MOL explained that the
government could not initiate court proceedings, but informed
workers of their rights to pursue the cases in Jordanian courts and
offered assistance in finding lawyers.


4. (U) MOL recently reported in the local press that in 2007,
workers filed 2,479 complaints at the MOL's Directorate of
Inspection and Workers Affairs, and 77% of the cases had been
resolved. Of those complaints, 755 were received through the
hotline set up last year in six languages: Hindi, Bangla, Sinhala,
Tagalog, and Bahasa Indonesian. Most of the complaints by foreign
laborers involved dormitory conditions, non-payment of overtime and
minimum wages, maltreatment by employers, delayed salaries, and
confiscation of passports.


5. (SBU) COMMENT: The closure of the Cotton Craft factory sends a
strong signal to other factories on the consequences of failure to
comply with local labor law. It also underscores that the Jordanian
government continues to take labor issues seriously and implement
tough decisions after exhausting all other measures to improve labor
conditions.

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