By Hani Hazaimehm Jordan Times

AMMAN – Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers at El Hassan Industrial Estate have been on strike since Saturday, accusing their employer of violating their rights.

A delegation comprising nine workers, who are employed by the International Business Garment Manufacturing Company (IBG), on Monday sought the assistance of the Tamkeen Centre for Legal Assistance after their talks with the relevant authorities reached a dead end, according to the workers.

They told The Jordan Times yesterday that they are “overworked” by their employer who keeps asking them to meet a daily target that is “beyond their capability”.

The delegation said the spark that stirred the workers’ protest was when an Indian supervisor “assaulted and humiliated a female worker simply because she wanted to use the restroom”.

“The supervisor grabbed her ear and hit her on her back and refused to let her go to the toilet,” one of the workers said yesterday. He asked to remain unnamed, fearing his employer’s retaliation.

The worker added that when his female colleague complained to the management, they did not believe her and asked her to go back to work, but she refused and filed a complaint with the police against the supervisor, who was subsequently summoned for interrogation and later referred to the judiciary.

“We wanted justice for our colleague, and when the management did not take any action, we decided to stage a work stoppage,” the workers said, adding that they also complained to the labour office at the industrial estate in Irbid, which did not take any action. READ MORE ON JORDAN TIMES

NOTE: This is the strange world of international economics: As a ‘pay-off’ for signing a ‘peace deal’ with Israel Jordan obtained some kind of ‘free trade deal’ with the USA. That is now why we find industrial estates in Jordan exporting to the US. The Jordanians usually do not provide the kind of labor force needed. Therefore we find Bangladeshi labor in Jordanian Industrial Estates.