They promised him to work in the Al-Attar Company for mining oil shale for the next 20 years, so he bought a water tanker worth 30,000 dinars (42,000 dollars), from which he paid a down payment, and completed the rest through a bank, and started working in the company two and a half years ago.

But the surprise is that the work of the company stopped at the beginning of last April, and overnight the dreams of the 32-year-old Anas Jayez Al-Nawrasah, of a decent and stable life, had no work, no ability to pay bank installments, and no possibility to sell the mortgaged water tank.

Similar to Anas, more than 190 workers from the local community in Umm Al-Rasas, the central Badia, south of the Jordanian capital Amman (100 km), bought tanks to transport water, and machinery to transport piles of oil rocks and dust, to work in the Al-Attarat Energy Company, according to the workers.

The Perfumes Company, a consortium of companies from China, Malaysia and Estonia, started its work in southern Jordan in 2010, and works on producing electric energy from oil shale and selling it to the National Electric Power Company, after it signed an agreement with the Jordanian government in 2014, to secure 15% of the Kingdom's annual need To electricity, and the electricity supply will start in 2021, with an investment cost of $ 2.1 billion.

Anas Jayz is now without work and unable to pay bank installments (Al-Jazeera)

Work without contracts

Those affected gather from time to time in front of their suspended machinery - according to the representative of the workers in the company Maher Al-Heqish - they send letters of protest against the deterioration of their economic and social conditions, due to the accumulation of debts, until their movements became limited after threats to imprisonment in their language due to their inability to make payments.

A representative of the workers told Al-Jazeera Net, "In 2017, with the start of work on the Perfume Company project, an agreement was signed between a consortium of a Jordanian and foreign contracting company affiliated with the company, and a committee from the local community, in order to provide job opportunities for them in the company, and based on the agreement, mechanisms and water tanks were purchased for work. ".

He added, "Our work with the coalition continued from 2017 until last April, but it stopped with the spread of the Corona pandemic, so we decided in the wind .. We submitted complaints to the administrative governors, and Minister of Energy Hala Zawiti, but they were not considered, unfortunately, under the pretext that we do not have contracts. Worked with the coalition. "

More than 190 workers from the local community in the Umm Al-Rasas area were affected after their work stopped (Al-Jazeera)

Perfumes Company

In turn, the Al-Attar Company denies “laying off any of its employees last year 2020, and the director of public relations of the company, Manhal Al-Uqla - told Al-Jazeera Net-“ The services of any of the workers or employees have not been terminated, and the company’s management is not aware of the case of these workers, and they have not agreed on any formula. Recruit".

He added that the company is contracting with coalitions of local and foreign companies, and about 200 contracting and service companies to complete work on the company's various projects, and there are contracting companies that have completed the work required of them, and others are continuing to work, and the company has nothing to do with workers who are employed by contracting and operating services companies. With the perfumery company.

International arbitration

On the other hand, the Jordanian Minister of Energy, Hala Zawiti, announced that the previous government, "the Razzaz government", decided on international arbitration procedures at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, on the ground of the outrageous unfairness in the power purchase agreement from the perfumery company, and for the purposes of issuing a judgment regarding the existence of gross injustice in the electric tariff and determining Its amount, and determining the right of the National Electric Power Company to terminate the contract, unless this outrageous unfairness is removed.

According to experts, the government and the National Electric Power Company found themselves facing a set of difficult conditions arranged by the terms of the agreement, most notably annual losses on the treasury estimated at 200 million dinars (280 million dollars), and large amounts of surplus electrical energy.

Regarding the arbitration issue, Uqla refused to comment on the case, stressing that the company "refuses to make a statement regarding this file."

Production lines to transport oil rocks in order to burn them and produce electricity (Al-Jazeera)

Israeli gas

Energy expert Amer Al-Shobaki told Al-Jazeera Net that the arbitration case froze work on the project, as well as the Corona pandemic, which led to the disruption and suspension of the work of the Jordanian contracting companies operating there, including these workers.

He added that the government confrontation with the perfume project came to continue the work of the agreement to import natural gas from the Israeli occupation, because the production of tires will lead to a decrease in the quantities of imported Israeli gas by 20% to 25%.

Of the Al-Attar Company buildings to produce electricity from oil shale in southern Jordan (Al-Jazeera)

The expert believes that the perfumery agreement, as a Chinese investment in Jordan, bothered the US administration when it signed, and the response to the agreement was to pressure Jordan to sign the agreement to import natural gas from Israel.

And between energy agreements, international arbitration, politicians ’disagreements and economists’ accounts, it seems that Jordanians from the local community in the Umm al-Rasas area are the weakest link, especially after they have purchased machinery that they cannot pay for, and have no place to work.