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A tale of two cleaners: low wages and the gender pay gap in the West Bank

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A tale of two cleaners: low wages and the gender pay gap in the West Bank

'Cleaners get paid different amounts here. If you are a married man with children, you get an extra 10 dinars a month for each child. But the families of women do not get this extra payment. I have told them about this and I am told that they cannot help because I fall outside of the system. I don't feel secure and I don't have stability.'

There are many hospitals in Nablus which are run privately through charitable donations. I visited one such hospital to understand more about the work of the health sector union and I was shown around by Jowayriah Medhat Fawzi Salem who works as a laboratory technician. She introduced me to two cleaners, Hassan and Sahar, both of whom were born and raised in Balata refugee camp where they continue to live. The camp is the largest in Nablus and is one of many across the West Bank. The camps host refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and once temporary camps have become a semi-permanent fixtures in many West Bank cities. In Balata, there are 25,000 people crammed into an area of one square kilometre, and it is supervised by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which provides services to 4.7 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

Jowayriah has worked at the hospital for many years and is a member of the health sector union and of the workers' committee which regularly meets with the hospital administration to negotiate and raise cases. She introduces me to Hassan and we begin to talk.

'I have worked 20 years as a cleaner in this hospital. My family were originally from Jaffa and they came to Nablus in 1948. I work about 45 hours a week.'

When I ask if the pay is adequate, Hassan raises his eyebrows.

'I get paid 250 Jordanian dinars a month (£224). It is not clear to me about the pay structure and when we have new employees, they seem to get paid more than me. And cleaners in the public sector get paid more than me too. We get paid at the end of the month but there is not a specific day. We may have to wait until next week. All employees say their salary is too low and I don't feel safe and secure in my job.'

'There is a workers' committee led by Jowayriah and they are in talks and negotiations with headquarters to try to get a rise in pay. But if I am not paid by next week, I will be in a serious crisis. This happens because we do not have a definite pay date. The excuse of the employer is that they need to pay the electricity bill, medicines bill, and other bills and that they do not have the cash flow to pay us right now.'

Hassan


At this point, Hassan opens up his wallet and shows us the few coins that is all that he has left of last month's salary. He says it is just enough to cover his transport costs for the next few days.

'I want to look for another job because of the conditions here. Ideally I would find work in a shop or something like that. But it is difficult to find another job, I have an injury to my leg and so I cannot do hard and heavy work. The injury happened when the refugee camp was under Israeli attack in 2002 and I was shot by a bullet fired from a helicopter while we were under siege. Actually I was just trying to get to work at the time. I spent six months under medical care and I was fired. Jowayriah took up my case and in the end I was re-instated.'

'I have many responsibilities since my father died 15 years ago. I have to look after my mother, sister, and wife. My sister works in the textiles sector but she has been told to stop working because her health is not good.'

We leave Hassan, having taken up a lot of his time. It seems clear that the wages that he earns are too low, especially considering the cost of essentials in Palestine. Meanwhile, the lack of a definite pay day is causing additional stress on an already tight budget.

We move upstairs to meet with Sahar, another cleaner at the hospital.

She tells me that: 'I have been a widow for 10 years. I am 32 and I have 2 children aged 10 and 12. I was married for two years to an Iranian man when he was shot and killed in Balata refugee camp in May 1999'.

'Now I support my children, my mother and my brother who is disabled after an accident. I earn 170 Jordanian dinars (£152) a month.'

I calculate that this is only 68 per cent of what Hassan is earning, even though Sahar has been also been working at the hospital for many years. Sahar continues:

'Out of this, I pay two dinars a day for transport to the hospital. Every three days, I spend about 20 dinars on food. My daughter needs extra help with her lessons and that costs 30 dinars. As we live in the refugee camp, the UNWRA provides us with accommodation but we have to pay for water and electricity. We also pay ten dinars for health insurance.'

Sahar


I ask her whether, as she is a widow, she gets any other income or social security payments.

'For the families of dead veterans, the government pays some benefits, but as my husband was not Palestinian, I do not qualify for these benefits. Several times I have thought to send my children to an orphanage as I am not able to fulfil their needs and they need stability. As a woman by myself, I feel I am under pressure from society.'

I ask her whether all cleaners get paid the same amount or whether cleaners earn different sums.

'Cleaners get paid different amounts here. If you are a married man with children, you get an extra 10 dinars a month for each child. But the families of women do not get this extra payment. I have told them about this and I am told that they cannot help because I fall outside of the system. I don't feel secure and I don't have stability. I feel that I could lose my job at any moment. I feel that it is unfair and unjust, but according to our daily life needs, I have no choice and I have to be patient and just handle the work.'

'Our workers' committee has tried to tackle this but the problem is with the system and with the decision-makers. We always complain about our salaries and the conditions but the answer is always the same. Take it or leave it, this is all we have. Life here is not so good.'

I ask Jowayriah about this. She says:

'There is never a response when I raise the issue of the why men are being paid for their children and women are not. All women at the hospital are affected by this, including me. We keep trying and we will not give up. It's one of the most serious issues we face.'

And why are the workers here being paid in Jordanian dinars?

'In Palestine, we use three currencies: Israeli shekels, Jordanian dinars and US dollars. As we are paid in dinars every month, we need to renegotiate our salaries each month so that the level keeps parity with the other currencies. This is an opportunity for the hospital as it asks customers to pay at a certain exchange rate and then pays our salary at a worse exchange rate! This is a big area of negotiation for us.'

Jowayriah


What is it like organising in the health sector, I ask Jowayriah. She tells a story of how the union has recently started to organise in a new workplace, and what process they went through to build up the trust of workers and management.

'We talked to the management direct about organising in the workplace. Initially they would not meet us alone and they were nervous because of what they had heard from other hospitals about strikes and collective agreements. But we explained to the managers that the committee of workers works in the interest of workers and managers and that it is a way to deal with problems before they get to management and then start to affect productivity.'

'In early November they finally agreed to let us start organising. They offered us space and invited the union to come in and offer an education session on 'communications' to help improve vocational skills. The employer was very nervous that we would be giving people negotiating skills, but we knew that we could use this session to talk about labour rights too!'

'The first session was two hours long and we started with a focus on supervisors and officers level. In fact 27 people came along including one doctor.'

'This was a private hospital and it tends not to keep workers on for more than one year, because then they qualify for extra benefits. Instead people tend to find that obstacles are created which make it harder for them to stay as workers.'

'But now the hospital wants us to have a series of meetings. As a union we will organise the whole site from doctors to cleaners and in Nablus it is the only unorganised workplace in the health sector that is left. People will join the union now because they recognise their low pay and unfair working conditions. Previously people felt scared but now that the managers have opened the door, they should not feel scared, although I am a little worried that management will try to interfere in union work.'

Back to Sahar, who faces discrimination on many levels: she does not qualify for extra pay for her children (unlike male workers), but she is also receiving substantially lower basic pay than her male colleagues, and again, those wages are totally inadequate to the needs of her and her family.

I ask Sahar about her hopes for the future, and especially for her daughter:

'I hope my daughter will not be like me. I do my best for her to continue her education and to make sure she is not in the same work.'

Jowayriah and Sahar


You can read more about the work of the PGFTU to organise and support women here

You can read more about the brand new Kindergarten workers union and their plans for the future here

You can read more about the transport sector union and their experiences under occupation here

Vicky Cann

vcann@tuc.org.uk

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