Reasons for worker's refrain to work in the qualified industrial zones (QIZ)‎ : a case of Jordan

Abstract EN

The industrial sector operating within the Qualified Industrial Zones has been developing steadily during the period (1999- 2008) .

This resulted in establishing more free zones amounted to 13 qualifying zones, 53 garment factories, which have had a demonstrable impact on the increasing of the Jordanian exports to the USA markets.

The study aims to identify the reality of employment conditions in the qualifying industrial zones, and to analyze the reasons for the phenomenon of reluctance to work in these zones.

The importance of this is study is the adoption of diagnostic and preventive aspects, so that the public and private sectors could take appropriate decisions accordingly.

To achieve the objective of the present study, the researchers adopted the descriptive statistical methods to test the research hypotheses through using statistical computer programs such as frequencies, percentages, mean, mode and standard deviations, which enable the researchers to identify the main reasons which refrain workers from working in the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) in Jordan.

The researchers designed a self- administered questionnaire through which the research objectives can be achieved.

Then it was distributed to a selected sample of workers in garment factories, and was recollected later on.

The researchers distributed (1500) questionnaire and recollected (1260) questionnaires which were valid for statistical analysis.

These represent (84 %) of the total questionnaires distributed to workers working at the garment factories operating within the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) in Jordan.

The results show that although the working conditions in the factories were somehow acceptable by the workers working in Qualified Industrial Zones, the main reasons for workers’ refrain to work in the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) in Jordan are the centralized procedures adopted by the managers in these factories, lack of cooperation and coordination with other divisions at the factory and lack of communication skills among divisions of factories working within the Qualified Industrial Zones.

Finally, the researchers gave some recommendations to encourage workers to work in the Qualified Industrial Zones.