Empowering workers in Jordan with social security and job protection

© ILO/ March 2024/ Amman, Jordan

© ILO/ March 2024/ Amman, Jordan

AMMAN (ILO News) - Throughout their careers, workers face a range of life events that can disrupt their ability to maintain a steady income and employment. Job loss, disability, retirement, maternity, and other life events can significantly impact workers' financial stability and job security. Social protection programmes play a crucial role in mitigating these risks by providing workers with income support and job protection during times of need. This underscores the importance of supporting the transition of informal workers to formality, as social security schemes offer protection against such events, ensuring workers are safeguarded from unforeseen circumstances.

The Jordanian Bab Al Khair Charity Organization supports local community development with the help of experienced and skilled employees who work in various social care and development initiatives. The charity promotes social protection and job security among its employees by enrolling them in the national social security scheme.

The youth-led management of the organization supported the enrolment of its employees with the Social Security Corporation (SSC). This enables insured workers to benefit from core social insurance benefits by receiving income support in the event of work-related injuries, unemployment, maternity, old age, and disability. The charity is one of 4,300 organizations currently benefiting from SSC's Estidama++ Fund.

The Estidama++ Fund supports both workers and employers by providing short-term coverage rewards and contribution subsidies. These incentives aim to enhance social protection for vulnerable workers, including women and refugees, while also reducing the financial burden on employers. By covering part of the costs associated with social security contributions, the programme facilitates the registration process for workers and employers.

Safaa, a 32-year-old Syrian woman living in Amman, is a Bab Al Khair employee who has benefited from the Estidama++ initiative. Her supervisor explained the benefits of her enrolment in the SSC through the Estidama++ programme, on both the short and the long term. It took a little while for Safaa to start benefitting from her registration in social security. A couple of months ago, she gave birth to a boy and obtained paid maternity leave that allowed her to take care of her newborn. Her presence with her infant would not have been possible without maternity insurance coverage. Her social security financially covers her absence from work, enabling the organization to find a temporary replacement. Female workers in Jordan are entitled to 70 days of paid maternity leave, covered by the Social Security Corporation, with no cost to employers during the leave period.

“My registration with the SCC has enabled me to care of my baby. Moreover, it has provided me with job security,” said Safaa. Also, it reassured her about the future, knowing that she will benefit from old age insurance, which provides a pension, even though she is not a Jordanian national.

Upon her return to work following her maternity leave, Safaa will benefit from child-care support for six months, through the Reaya programme, which will enable her to register her baby in a daycare centre or have someone care for him at home.

Another beneficiary of Estidama++ is Ola, a 31-year-old Jordanian woman who has been living with her parents in Ein El Basha in the Balqa governorate. She has been working for the past months as the project director at the organization. Ola loves her work, and her ambition is to further develop her knowledge and capacities in her field to find employment in an international organization.

© Bab El Khair Organization/ January 2024/ Irbid, Jordan

© Bab El Khair Organization/ January 2024/ Irbid, Jordan

Ola was also briefed by the management about social security and its benefits and all the advantages she would obtain from joining the SSC, and they proposed to enrol her through the Estidama++ programme.

Ola has witnessed the positive impact of registration in the SSC within her own family. “Thanks to social security, my father has been obtaining a monthly pension ever since he retired. This is very important, as it provides him with much-needed financial stability,” she said.

Ola feels more secure since she became registered with the SSC as she feels she is covered and will be able to sustain herself in her old age, when she will be entitled to her retirement pension.

As part of Estidama++ programme, Ola will receive four coverage rewards, one every three months. She has received one payment recently. Estidama++ provides such incentives to support workers' registration in the SSC and ensure that their financial situation or salary do not stand in the way of their benefitting from an inclusive protection system.

The organization's Operations Manager, Yasmine al Kafrwai, highlighted that "social protection plays a major role in empowering and supporting women by enabling them to become financially independent." The organization is currently benefiting from the contribution subsidies, which provide support to the firm to fund the employer’s contribution to SSC for one year.”

Yasmine said, "The contribution subsidies enabled us to hire more employees with the money we saved." She added, "Through this programme, our employees benefitted from social security during their everyday life, which was very encouraging for them."

The Estidama++ programme is making a significant difference to workers’ lives in Jordan by promoting social protection as a human right that ensures decent work for all workers. Estidama++ is implemented by the International Labour Organization, in partnership with the Social Security Corporation in Jordan and with funds from the governments of the United Kingdom, Norway, and the Netherlands.