Jordan-based Al-Arab Al-Yawm's board has announced the dismissal of fourteen of its journalists and other employees
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) denounces the decision by the board of the Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper to dismiss 14 journalists and administrative workers, particularly after it had announced the suspension of the newspaper for two months.
The Jordan-based newspaper issued its decision on 13 August 2013. Three of the fourteen journalists are members of the trade union committee. The newspaper was suspended in mid-July 2013 as a result of poor economic conditions; the total cost of producing one issue is much higher than its price on the market.
The newspaper’s board had negotiated with some of its employees and settled the conditions of their release from their job contracts. Others refused to accept the settlement which led the board to firing them during the period in which the paper was suspended.
In response to their dismissal, the journalists and other employees decided to protest in front of the building to express their rejection of the injustice inflicted upon them by the newspaper’s board and to protest the Ministry of Labour’s inaction and failure to intervene to solve the crisis and help the workers.
“The decision of the newspaper’s board to dismiss a number of journalists and workers is an arbitary one and violates the laws of the Ministry of Labour, which does not permit the firing of employees when a newspaper is under suspension,” said ANHRI.
ANHRI also explained that the dismissals were a strategy by the newspaper’s board against the journalists and workers who refused to accept the settlements offered to them, in an attempt to compel them to accept it.
ANHRI demands that Jordan’s Ministry of Labour intervenes immediately to solve issue faced by Al-Arab Al-Yawm’s employees and compels the newspaper’s board to enforce the Jordanian labor law.
