In order to ensure the rights of private-school teachers, the “Stand Up with the Teacher” campaign formed in 2015. The Ahel Foundation organized this campaign with the support of the National Committee for Pay Equity (NCPE) to ensure teachers receive minimum wage and summer-month salaries. The campaign has achieved several successes. In September 2017, they launched the popular “Our Salary in the Bank” hashtag in Arabic. The campaign ended with a sit-in of private school teachers in front of the Ministry of Education. These actions resulted in the compulsory transfer of teachers’ salaries to bank accounts or electronic wallets for all private schools.
Private School Salary Violations
Employers force teachers who wish to transfer schools to resign completely at the end of each scholastic year. This violation is so that employers can pay salaries for nine months instead of 12. This process also results in teachers losing their social security rights.
Several private schools committed violations regarding the salaries of their employees. These violations include paying monthly salaries lower than the minimum wage, making unlawful deductions from salaries, and more. Some teachers have issued complaints to the Ministry of Labor, and inspectors sometimes penalize violators with fines for committing abuses. However, employers often prefer to pay the pecuniary penalty over giving teachers their full rights. Therefore, imposing this pecuniary penalty on errant employers does not lead to any change in the violations.
Teachers thus work without any guarantee of receiving their salaries. These violations of teachers’ rights can reflect negatively on the experiences of students in the classroom. Teachers who are experiencing wage violations cannot perform properly when they face rights infringement. Teachers advocated to have their salaries transferred to bank accounts or electronic wallets to hold employers accountable and prove the violations would stop.
Campaign Highlights Pay Equity and Teachers’ Rights
In 2013, National Committee for Pay Equity carried out a survey related to private-education sector wages. The survey showed that 27 percent of the teachers received a monthly salary below the minimum wage (190 Jordanian dollars). Thirty seven percent received the minimum wage.
Through Facebook, the campaign shared posts about teachers’ rights to minimum wage, maternity and breastfeeding leave, social security and the unified labor contract. The campaign stated that:
In case of contract renewal, it must start at the date when the previous contract ends by mutual consent, this to ensure the rights for both, and to ensure that teachers receive their summer months salaries.
In 2017, “Stand Up with the Teacher” campaign conducted an online survey lasted for three days. 1362 private-school teachers participated in order to shed light on the need to transfer teacher salaries to bank accounts. The campaign called on the Ministry of Education and the Social Security department to ensure complete transparency – that salaries of teachers be transferred to banks and not be paid in cash.
On February 28, 2018, “Stand Up with the Teacher” campaign culminated in submitting position paper signed by 90 decision-makers in Jordan showing the key findings of the teachers’ survey to the Minister of Education.
The Success of this Tactic
As a result of this tactic and the campaign’s hard work, as well as collaboration with the Ahel Foundation, the National Committee for Pay Equity, and the International Labor Organization, the goal was accomplished in March 2018. Now, it is required for all private schools to be licensed and to submit that teachers’ payroll as bank transfers or to electronic wallets. This tactic successfully intervened in the violation of the rights of teachers in private schools to a fair wage, social security and raises.
