Ramallah – Palestine Economy Portal

The National Committee for Wages agreed on forwarding a recommendation to the ministerial cabinet with regard to raising the value of the minimum wage, based on the rate of living expense being a legal entitlement that is binding to the Ministry of Labor.

Minister of Labor Ma’moun Abu Shahla, the head of the national committee, discussed the accumulative living expense for the years 2013-2018, during a joint committee meeting with the International Labor Organization. The numbers discussed were based on statistical data issued by PCBS.  

The meeting addressed the position of the committee that was endorsed by the government to support the workers in the sectors of textiles and pre-schools in the West Bank including Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. The committee will draft recommendations to the ministerial cabinet on this issue with mechanisms for implementation that will ensure its effectiveness on workers in these two sectors.

Special statistics on work and labor sector shows that 8% of workers with wage in the private sector in the West Bank and numbered 29400 of a total of 400 thousand do not get the minimum wage.

Abu Shahla said: “the first step is to raise the minimum wage, followed by raising the value of the minimum wage, to the rates that were agreed upon, after continuing a study prepared by the International Labor Organization and after getting recommendations from subcommittees in different Palestinian governorates with three participating parties. A meeting will be held two months after the date to open up a discussion aiming to reach an agreement with substantive increase that is acceptable to all parties for the minimum wage, an order will be forwarded to the ministerial cabinet to complete the legal requirement.

In another context, a meeting was held, by the ILO and headed by the Minister of Labor, for the work team to continue the extended workshop that was held on 12/12/2018, which dealt with amending and revising the provisions of the Palestinian Labor Law. The two notes address the controls, suggestions, and observations reviewed by three parties involved in the government, workers, and employers. They agreed on forming a specialized technical committee with its tripartite structure to study all the provisions of the Palestinian Labor Law in which three members from every party, with at least one of them having legal experience in order to look over the ILO’s notes and start a serious discussion regarding the clauses that are set to be amended in the Palestinian Labor Law. The meetings will begin on Wednesday.

The specialized technical committee will hold intensive and ongoing meetings with technical support for the committee from a team formed by each of the three parties to express their opinion and view point in the law articles. The committee will continue its work by forwarding recommendations of the Palestinian Labor Law draft, which was suggested for the national team fir appropriate work, to have a final discussion and to reach an agreement and agree to all its terms, and then forward it to the ministerial cabinet in order to complete the legal requirement to amend the law.

The committee will listen to all the parties’ opinions in Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem, along with the economic and social sectors, and the most important of which are the women’s sectors.