Unfair Dismissal Under the Jordanian Labour Law: Lawful and Prohibited Grounds and Employee Rights

A dismissal decision usually reaches the employee on a two-line sheet of paper, but the compensation, wages and entitlements that follow from it are decided in precise provisions that do not appear on that sheet. The Jordanian Labour Law No. 8 of 1996 and its amendments, most recently amending Law No. 10 of 2023, regulates the termination of the employment contract in Article 21 and the articles that follow, and sets out in Article 25 the consequences of an unfair dismissal that breaches its provisions. The reason the employer writes in the dismissal letter does not settle the dispute by itself: each lawful ground has legal conditions that may not have been met, and the claim is subject to a short period set by the law that runs from the date of dismissal. That is why any dismissal file begins with an assessment by a lawyer specializing in labor cases, before signing any paper and before taking any step.

1. What Is Unfair Dismissal Under Jordanian Law?

Unfair dismissal is the employer's termination of the employee's contract in a way that breaches the provisions of the Labour Law. This happens in three forms: the termination takes place in a situation in which the law prohibits ending the employment altogether; it rests on a ground the law considers lawful without meeting the conditions on which the law made dismissal permissible; or it takes place without any ground the law recognizes. Article 25 uses the phrase "unfair and in breach of the provisions of this Law", and the standard here is whether the termination breaches a specific provision, not whether the employee feels wronged.

This is why it matters to distinguish between the stated reason and the real reason. The dismissal letter may say "restructuring" when it was preceded by a complaint the employee filed with the competent authorities, or it may say "absence" when the dismissal was not preceded by the warning the law requires. Conversely, a dismissal may be sudden and yet entirely lawful.

It is not enough for the employer to send a written notice of termination for the dismissal to become lawful. Article 23 regulates the form of terminating an indefinite-term contract and the notice period, while the lawfulness of the termination is a separate question; this is shown by the fact that Article 25 makes unfair dismissal compensation payable "in addition to payment in lieu of notice". Matching the facts of the file against the provisions of Articles 21 to 31 is work the lawyer carries out after reviewing the employment contract, the service file, the dismissal letter and the correspondence that preceded it.

2. Table of Lawful and Prohibited Grounds for Terminating the Employment Contract

The following table brings together the grounds for terminating the contract under the Labour Law, with the article governing each ground and the point at which the termination turns into a dispute over unfairness:

Ground for termination	Article	Legal description	Where the dispute usually arises
Agreement of the two parties to end the contract	21(a)	Lawful	When the employee is presented with a ready-made resignation form or termination agreement, and the question of whether they genuinely consented is raised
Expiry of the contract term or completion of the work itself	21(b)	Lawful	The correct characterization of the contract: fixed-term or indefinite-term
Illness or disability that leaves the employee unable to work	21(c)	Lawful, provided it is established by a medical report issued by the medical authority	Terminating the contract after an injury or illness without the report the provision requires
Written notice terminating an indefinite-term contract	23	Lawful in form	Notice does not substitute for the lawfulness of the ground for termination
One of the nine grounds for dismissal without notice	28	Lawful if the ground is proven and its condition is met	Some items are conditional on two written warnings, on a warning that is sent and published, on notifying the competent authorities, or on a final judgment
Economic or technical circumstances requiring a reduction of work	31	Lawful under specific procedures	Termination before the Minister is notified in writing of the reasons and before the tripartite committee's procedures are completed
Dismissal because of complaints and claims	24	Prohibited	A different stated reason that hides the link between the dismissal and an earlier complaint or claim
A pregnant employee from the sixth month or during maternity leave, an employee called up for military service or reserve service, and an employee on annual or sick leave or similar leave	27(a)	Prohibited, both termination and notice	The prohibition is lifted if the employee works for another employer during that period (27(b))
Taking action against a union representative because of their union activity	108(a)	Prohibited, on pain of nullity	Presenting the dismissal as being for an administrative or organizational reason
Terminating a fixed-term contract before its term ends	26(a)	The employee is entitled to the wages for the remaining period and the contract rights	Unless the termination is a dismissal under Article 28

The table shows that most lawful grounds are subject to a condition or a procedure, and if the condition is not met the dismissal may become unfair even if the ground was valid in principle. Identifying which item applies to the facts, and checking whether the employer met its conditions, is the first stage in reviewing any dismissal file.

3. Dismissal Without Notice Under Article 28: Conditions That Cannot Simply Be Claimed

Article 28 allows the employer to dismiss the employee without notice in nine cases, including: impersonation or submitting forged certificates or documents; failure to fulfill the obligations arising from the employment contract; committing an error that caused serious material loss; breaching the institution's internal work rules; absence without a lawful reason; disclosing work secrets; conviction by a final court judgment of a felony or a misdemeanor offending honor and public morals; being at work in a state of evident drunkenness or under the influence of a narcotic substance; and assaulting the employer, the manager, a superior, colleagues or others by beating or insult.

However, for many of these items it is not enough for the employer to claim that the act took place, because the provision itself attaches conditions to it:

• For serious material loss, the provision requires the employer to notify the competent authority of the incident within a short period set by the law from the time the employer learned of it.
• For breach of the internal work rules, the provision requires that the breach occur despite the employee having been warned in writing twice.
• For absence, the provision requires that the employee be absent without a lawful reason for more than twenty intermittent days in one year or more than ten consecutive days, and that the dismissal be preceded by a written warning sent by registered mail to the employee's address and published once in a local daily newspaper.
• For a criminal conviction, the provision requires that the judgment have become final, and that the crime be a felony or a misdemeanor offending honor and public morals.

The question in these files therefore covers whether the act took place, whether it is proven, and whether the condition attached to it was met. Absence that was not preceded by a warning in the form the provision lays down, or a breach that was not preceded by two written warnings, are points the lawyer scrutinizes because they may change the description of the dismissal from lawful to unfair.

4. May an Employee Be Dismissed Without an Investigation or a Hearing?

Article 28 does not provide for an investigation in a single form that applies to every case of dismissal, but the Labour Law places restrictions on disciplinary procedures in Article 48: the employer may not take any disciplinary action or impose a fine on the employee for a breach not set out in the schedule of disciplinary penalties approved by the Minister; the employee must be given the opportunity to be heard in their own defense before the penalty is imposed; and the employee has the right to object to it.

It follows that the question of "dismissal without an investigation" cannot be settled by a general rule. It depends on the item the employer relied on, on what the schedule of disciplinary penalties and the internal work rules approved for the establishment provide, and on whether the procedures preceding the dismissal, such as warnings and lighter penalties, were taken properly. The lawyer reads the schedule of disciplinary penalties, the internal work rules and the employee's disciplinary file together, because a gap in any of them may be a way to challenge the lawfulness of the dismissal.

5. Protected Situations in Which Ending Employment Is Prohibited

Alongside the grounds on which the law permits dismissal, the Labour Law sets out situations in which termination, or giving notice of it, is prohibited, even if another ground appears to exist:

Under Article 24, the employee may not be dismissed, nor may any disciplinary action be taken against them, for reasons connected with complaints and claims they submitted to the competent authorities concerning the application of the provisions of the law to them, subject to what is provided in Article 31. This is one of the most common forms and one of the hardest to prove, because the employer rarely writes in the dismissal letter that the reason is the employee's complaint.

Under Article 27, the employment of a pregnant working woman may not be terminated from the sixth month of her pregnancy or during maternity leave; nor may the employment of an employee called up for military service or reserve service be terminated while performing it; nor that of an employee during their annual or sick leave or the other types of leave listed in the provision. This prohibition is lifted if the employee works for another employer during any of those periods.

Under Article 108, the employer may not, on pain of nullity, take any action against a union representative because of their exercise of union activity, including dismissal. In this case the court may order their reinstatement with their full wages for the period of interruption, and if they cannot return for reasons relating to the employer, they may claim additional compensation of not less than six months' wages and not more than twelve months' wages, in addition to unfair dismissal compensation and any other rights.

Assessing whether the dismissal took place "because of" the complaint or the union activity, rather than coincidentally after them, is itself a legal question that merits consultation, because proof here is built on timing, the sequence of correspondence and circumstantial evidence more than on direct evidence.

6. Constructive Dismissal: The Employee Leaving Work Under Article 29

Dismissal does not always come as an explicit decision. Article 29 gives the employee the right to leave work without notice while keeping their legal end-of-service rights and the compensation due to them, in cases including: being employed in work that differs clearly from the work agreed upon; being transferred to work at a lower grade; having their wage reduced; it being established by a medical report issued by a medical authority that continuing to work threatens their health; being assaulted by the employer or the employer's representative by beating, insult or any form of sexual assault or sexual harassment; or the employer's failure to implement the provisions of the law after receiving notice from a competent authority in the Ministry.

The provision also states that if the Minister finds that the employer or the employer's representative has assaulted its employees by beating or by any form of sexual assault or sexual harassment, the employer or its representative is punished by a fine of not less than two thousand Jordanian dinars (JOD) and not more than five thousand dinars, and the fine is doubled in the event of repetition.

But this right is conditional. The provision requires the employee to notify the Ministry of Labor within a short period from the date of leaving work and by the methods the Ministry specifies, and the situation relied on must be one of the cases listed in the provision and must be capable of proof. Leaving work outside these cases may make the employee liable: an employee on a fixed-term contract who ends it outside the cases in Article 29 may be required to pay damages assessed by the court within a ceiling the provision ties to the remaining term of the contract, under Article 26(b).

The difference between leaving that preserves rights and leaving that forfeits them may come down to a single notification or a single date. So do not leave work in protest at delayed wages or a change of duties before the lawyer assesses the situation and determines whether it falls under Article 29 and how it should be documented.

7. Terminating Contracts for Economic or Technical Reasons

Article 31 allows the employer, where its economic or technical circumstances require reducing the volume of work, replacing one production system with another, or ceasing work permanently, to terminate indefinite-term employment contracts or suspend all or some of them. But the provision requires the employer to notify the Minister in writing, supported by the justifying reasons, before taking any action; the Minister then forms a committee of the three parties to production to verify that the procedures are sound, and issues a decision approving the action or calling for it to be reconsidered, with a right to challenge that decision before the competent Court of Appeal.

For this reason, the words "restructuring" or "economic circumstances" in a dismissal letter are not enough on their own. In these files the lawyer verifies whether the notification exists, its content and its timing, whether the Minister's decision was issued, and whether the selection of the employees whose employment was ended is consistent with the stated reasons.

8. What Follows Once Unfair Dismissal Is Established?

Article 25 provides that if the competent court finds, in a lawsuit the employee files within the period set by the provision from the date of dismissal, that the dismissal was unfair and in breach of the provisions of the law, it may order the employer to reinstate the employee in their original job, or order the employer to pay compensation whose basis of assessment the provision sets out, tying it to the employee's length of service and giving it a minimum, in addition to payment in lieu of notice and the employee's other entitlements set out in Articles 32 and 33, with the compensation calculated on the basis of the last wage the employee received.

As a result, an unfairly dismissed employee has independent claims, each with its own basis:

• Unfair dismissal compensation under Article 25, or reinstatement in its place.
• Payment in lieu of notice for the notice period the employee was not given.
• Other entitlements, including the end-of-service gratuity for an employee not covered by the Social Security Law, a matter with its own separate rules covered in the article end-of-service gratuity under Jordanian law, and the establishment's own savings, provident or retirement fund entitlements, if any.
• Wages for the remaining period if the contract was fixed-term and was ended before its expiry, under Article 26(a).
• The additional compensation established for union representatives in the situation governed by Article 108.

The fact that these bases exist in the provision does not mean that reaching them is a simple arithmetic exercise. The dispute usually turns on elements that come before any calculation: was the dismissal unfair in the first place, what is the actual length of service that counts, which allowances and commissions are included in the "last wage", was the contract fixed-term or indefinite-term, and was any right forfeited by what the employee signed on leaving. Each of these elements can be disputed, and each is built on evidence that each party presents.

Unfair dismissal compensation differs in its basis from compensation for damage under the general rules, since the former rests on a special provision in the Labour Law, while a claim for compensation for material and moral damage is subject to other provisions set out in the article civil compensation under the Jordanian Civil Code. Choosing the correct basis for each claim, and deciding which of them to combine in a single lawsuit, is a decision the lawyer makes in light of the facts of the file.

Practical note: A draft law amending the Labour Law, dealing with some of the protected situations and the grounds for dismissal, has been submitted to the National Assembly, and the versions of the law in circulation may not reflect the latest amendment. For this reason, the lawyer reviews the text in force on the specific date of the dismissal before building any claim, and this verification, or consulting a specialist lawyer, comes before any action.

9. The Burden of Proof and the Lawyer's Role in an Unfair Dismissal Lawsuit

The first issue raised in an unfair dismissal lawsuit is how the burden of proof is divided between the two parties. The employer relies on a ground that justifies the dismissal, and the employee argues that the real reason is prohibited, that the stated reason is untrue, or that its conditions were not met. This contest is conducted through documents, witnesses and circumstantial evidence, and the way they are arranged before the court is often the difference between a judgment that recognizes unfairness and one that rejects it.

At this stage the lawyer examines the employment contract and the service file, the schedule of disciplinary penalties and the internal work rules, the earlier warnings and how they were served, and the timing of the dismissal and the complaints, claims or leave that preceded it. The file becomes more delicate when the dismissal follows an injury or illness, since Article 21(c) permits the contract to end if illness or disability leaves the employee unable to work and this is established by a medical report issued by the medical authority, which raises the question of whether this condition was actually met or whether the injury was used as a pretext for dismissal. This is a situation in which the rules on dismissal intertwine with the rules on work injury and the rights of the injured employee.

The same applies on the employer's side: an establishment that issues a dismissal letter without reviewing its conditions may face a lawsuit that could have been avoided by a warning or notification at the right time. An early assessment, before any settlement and release is signed or any dismissal letter is issued, protects the position of both parties.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is a dismissal considered unfair under Jordanian law?

A dismissal is considered unfair when it takes place in a situation the law prohibits, such as dismissal because of complaints and claims (Article 24) or dismissing a pregnant employee in the situations protected by Article 27; when it rests on a lawful ground without its conditions being met; or when it takes place without any ground the law recognizes. Whether this description applies to particular facts is assessed by the lawyer after reviewing the dismissal letter and what preceded it.

What are the employee's rights in the case of unfair dismissal?

Article 25 allows the court to order the employee's reinstatement, or compensation tied to the length of service and the last wage with a minimum set by the provision, in addition to payment in lieu of notice and the entitlements set out in Articles 32 and 33. Which of these applies to each file is determined after reviewing the contract and the circumstances of the dismissal.

How is unfair dismissal compensation calculated?

Article 25 sets the basis of the compensation and its minimum, and makes the last wage the employee received its basis. But the actual result depends on matters that are usually disputed, such as the length of service that counts, the components of the wage, the characterization of the contract and whether unfairness is established in the first place. This is why the lawyer determines the claims after reviewing the documents, not by applying a general figure.

May an employee be dismissed without an investigation?

Article 48 requires that the employee be given the opportunity to be heard before any disciplinary penalty is imposed, and that they not be penalized for a breach not listed in the approved schedule of disciplinary penalties. The effect of the absence of an investigation on the lawfulness of the dismissal depends on the item the employer relied on and on the establishment's internal work rules, a point the lawyer assesses in each file.

If an employee is absent for 10 days, can they be dismissed?

Article 28(e) permits dismissal without notice if the employee is absent without a lawful reason for more than twenty intermittent days in a year or more than ten consecutive days, provided the dismissal is preceded by a written warning sent by registered mail and published once in a local daily newspaper. The lawfulness of the ground and the validity of the warning are two questions the lawyer scrutinizes before reaching a view on the dismissal.

Is leaving work because the salary was not paid considered unfair dismissal?

It may fall within the cases in Article 29 that allow the employee to leave work without notice while keeping their rights, including the employer's failure to implement the provisions of the law after being notified by a competent authority in the Ministry. But this right is conditional on notifying the Ministry within a short period and on proving the situation, so the employee should not leave work before a lawyer has assessed the position.

May a pregnant employee be dismissed in Jordan?

Article 27 prohibits terminating the employment of a pregnant working woman from the sixth month of her pregnancy or during maternity leave, or giving her notice of termination during that period, unless she works for another employer during it. A dismissal before the sixth month is assessed according to its actual reason and the provision in force on its date.

Should the employee sign the settlement and release after dismissal?

Do not sign any settlement and release, discharge of liability or resignation before showing it to a specialist lawyer. What is signed on the day of leaving may later be relied on as a waiver of rights or an admission of the reason for dismissal, and assessing the paper before signing it is easier than trying to undo its effect afterward.

Legal Consultation

Unfair dismissal is one of the most sensitive labor disputes for both parties: the employee has lost their livelihood and wants to prove the unfairness and recover their rights in full, while the employer sees a lawful reason behind its decision and fears a costly lawsuit. Because the claim is limited to a short period from the date of dismissal, and because a single signature on a settlement and release or leaving work without notification may forfeit an existing right, engaging a specialist lawyer from the first days determines the course of the entire file. For anyone who needs their file assessed, the firm provides specialist legal consultation in labor and employment cases, and related material is covered in the articles employee rights on termination of the employment contract and labor cases and the rights of employees and employers. You can contact Alabwini Law Firm & Legal Consultancy to review the file and discuss the available options.