BREAKING NEWS

Deri, Levin considering Jordanian worker permits for Dead Sea

APRIL 14, 2016 00:01

Updated: APRIL 14, 2016 00:00

Interior Minister Arye Deri and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin are considering issuing permits to Jordanian workers to work at Dead Sea hotels.

In July, then-interior minister Silvan Shalom approved a similar plan to expand the number of Jordanian day workers to work in Eilat.

There are now 1,500 Jordanian workers whose permits allow them to enter and work in Israel on a daily basis, but commute back across the border each evening.

The positions are primarily in cleaning, dish-washing and housekeeping.

“We are continuing the pilot we started in Eilat and asking to continue the project at the Dead Sea hotels as well,” Deri said. The plan, he added, would benefit both Israel and Jordan, and strengthen the ties between them.

Levin said the move would help bring down prices and improve service at the Dead Sea hotels.

“The Dead Sea hotels suffer from manpower shortages that directly affect their ability to ensure good customer service, so we decided to try and expand the recruitment of Jordanian workers to the Dead Sea.

I believe that this will both help the labor shortages there and improve the service,” he said Last month, a controversy erupted when the government allowed work permits for Palestinian employees of SodaStream to lapse. The Prime Minister’s Office said at the time that their policy was to favor Israeli workers.

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