Mohammed Mufadi AL-Maagbeh
The strike of public employees is of vital, fundamental, and controversial issues owing to multiple problems it raises in face of political systems. Despite its close relation to an inherent human right, as a manifestation of freedom of expression, it negatively affects the functioning of public facilities regularly and steadily. The stances of jurisprudence and the judiciary, nevertheless, differed on this matter between legitimacy and lack thereof. Accordingly, the current study casts light on the Jordanian legal system in terms of the regulatory legislation thereof, and the stance of the Jordanian constitutional and administrative judiciary towards public employees' strike. Coherently, the study seeks to clarify the contradiction between the stance of the Jordanian constitutional and administrative judiciary on preserving this right and how it is practiced. In this context, the study scrutinizes the constitutionality of the text of Article (68) of the Jordanian Civil Service System No. (82) of 2013. Moreover, the study views the international conventions ratified by Jordan that features the public employees' strike as a general principle, restricted exceptionally to the necessities of regular functioning of the public facility. Consequently, the study focuses on Jordan's ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights and hence examines whether it affects the legitimacy of the strike or not. The research concluded that Article 68 of the Jordanian Civil Service Law No. 82 of 2013 is unconstitutional. In addition, there is a clear contradiction between the rulings of the Jordanian Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court pertaining to the preservation of the right for a public employees to strike, since the Jordanian constitution, in accordance with the amendments of 2011, affirms the imperative for preserving the public rights and freedoms of Jordanians and not to prejudice their essence or undermine their fundamentals, consolidating the text of Article (2/128) of the Jordanian Constitution of 1952.