Work Injury in Jordanian Law: The Rights of the Injured Employee and the Three Compensation Tracks
A single injury at the workplace or on the way to it can cut off a family's income and leave a disability that stays with the injured person for the rest of their life. A work injury is governed by Social Security Law No. 1 of 2014 for the insured employee, and by Labour Law No. 8 of 1996 and its amendments for the employee not covered by social security, while Civil Code No. 43 of 1976 remains relevant when the injury results from a fault for which the employer or another person is liable. The injured person may settle for what the Social Security Corporation pays, thinking that this is the end of their rights, even though whether the door to an additional claim is open at all is a question that a lawyer specializing in labor cases settles after studying the file, and often before that door is closed by signatures that seem at the time to be a formality.
1. What the Law Considers a Work Injury
Article 2 of the Social Security Law defines a work injury as contracting one of the occupational diseases listed in Schedule No. 1 annexed to the Law, or an injury resulting from an accident that befell the insured person while performing their work or because of it, including an accident that befalls them on the way to or from work, provided the journey was made in the usual manner or the route taken was an acceptable route. The Labour Law adopts the same idea in its Article 2.
The definition is broad on its face, but the dispute usually turns on the connection between the accident and the work, or on whether the route was an acceptable one. The characterization of the event is what decides which law governs it, which is why the lawyer starts from the accident report and the first treatment reports before any other step.
2. The Three Tracks of Compensation for a Work Injury
The injured person's rights are distributed across three tracks, each with its own scope, the party obliged under it, and the conditions for combining it with the others:
| Point of comparison | Work injury insurance (Social Security Law No. 1 of 2014) | Employer's obligations (Labour Law No. 8 of 1996) | Civil liability lawsuit (Civil Code No. 43 of 1976) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it covers | The insured employee | The employee to whom the provisions of the Social Security Law do not apply (Article 86) | Anyone harmed by a harmful act, with special restrictions against the employer |
| What it covers | Medical care, daily allowances for temporary disability, disability pensions or lump-sum compensation, and funeral expenses (Article 25) | Compensation set by law for death and disability, and a daily allowance for temporary disability (Article 90) | The loss suffered by the injured party and the profit lost (Article 266), and moral damage (Article 267) |
| Who pays | The Social Security Corporation | The employer directly | The person liable for the harm: the employer as principal or as custodian of the machine (Articles 288 and 291), or a third party |
| Is the employer's fault required? | No | No | Yes, or the liability of the custodian of the machine must arise |
| Recourse against the employer for more than that | Not permitted except for gross fault by the establishment (Article 37) | Not permitted except for the employer's fault (Article 89) | This is the track that opens when either of these two conditions is met |
The first two tracks do not require proof of fault, but they are governed by fixed rules. The third track measures compensation by the actual extent of the harm, and requires proof of fault, and indeed of gross fault if the employee is covered by social security.
3. What Work Injury Insurance Does Not Cover
Social security allowances and pensions are paid according to rules linked to the wage adopted as the basis for contributions and to the disability percentage set by the medical authority. There is no place in this calculation for pain and disfigurement, or for earnings lost outside the registered wage, and these are elements for which the Civil Code provides compensation when its grounds exist.
Article 32 requires the establishment to provide occupational safety and health conditions, and if the Corporation establishes that the injury occurred because of the establishment's violation, the establishment bears the medical care costs paid by the Corporation. Proof of such a violation may later become a presumption the lawyer relies on when examining the employer's fault.
4. The Disability Percentage and Its Effect on Entitlement
The law defines permanent total injury disability as disability that causes the insured person to lose their physical ability to work permanently at a rate of not less than 75%, with anything below that being partial disability. Article 30 distinguishes between permanent partial disability of not less than 30%, for which the injured person is entitled to a monthly disability pension, and disability below 30%, for which they are entitled to lump-sum compensation. In other words, a few points in the medical committee's assessment can separate a monthly pension from an amount paid once.
The percentage is determined by a decision of the medical authority according to Schedule No. 2 annexed to the Law (Article 34), and both the Corporation and the insured person may object to the decisions of the primary medical committee before the appellate medical committee within a specified period, after which documents submitted are not accepted (Article 38). That is why the lawyer reviews the medical reports and how the schedule applies before the decision becomes settled, since a medically weak objection wastes the most important opportunity to correct the assessment.
Practical note: The provisions on work injuries are not fixed: in 2026 a draft law amending the Social Security Law was put forward that touches certain provisions relating to notifying the Corporation of the injury and to the funding of this insurance. The lawyer therefore checks the text in force on the date of the injury before building any claim; a coworker's experience is not enough here, and reference must be made to the official text, or a specialist lawyer consulted.
5. When the Employer Is Liable for More Than What Social Security Pays
Article 37 of the Social Security Law provides that the injured person, their heirs or their beneficiaries have no right of recourse against the establishment for any compensation other than the compensation provided in the Law in respect of work injuries, unless the injury resulted from gross fault by the establishment. For the employee not covered by social security, however, Article 89 of the Labour Law requires only that the injury result from the employer's fault, without describing it as gross. A fault that suffices in the file of an uninsured employee may therefore not suffice in the file of an insured one.
The Social Security Law did not include a definition of gross fault among its defined terms, so its assessment remains with the court in light of the facts of each file. Determining whether the employer's fault rises to this level is itself a legal question that merits consultation before any step. The lawyer relies here on the rules of the Civil Code, such as Article 288 on the liability of a person who has actual authority to supervise and direct the subordinate, and Article 291, which makes a person who has mechanical machines at their disposal liable for the harm they cause, except for what cannot be guarded against.
The restriction in Article 37 is limited to recourse against the establishment. If the injury was caused by a third party, such as a driver who caused an accident on the route to work, the Corporation's liability toward the injured person remains, and it has recourse against the third party for what it paid (Article 41), while that third party's liability is examined under the general rules, including those relating to compulsory insurance coverage for bodily injuries in traffic accidents.
Do not sign a release or an acknowledgment of receipt of all your rights before a lawyer reviews it, because a single phrase in it may be read as a waiver of a claim that has not yet been examined.
6. The Employee Not Covered by Social Security
The work injury provisions of the Labour Law apply to employees to whom the provisions of the Social Security Law do not apply (Article 86), and the employer is directly obliged to pay the compensation. Article 90 set compensation for death and total disability within a minimum and a maximum in Jordanian dinars (JOD), and the compensation is set by agreement between the parties, failing which it is assessed by the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Labor as the official authorized to assess it (Article 92), and the claim is accepted only if filed within a period set by the law (Article 93).
Because of this ceiling, the employer's fault becomes decisive in these files, since proving it opens the door to the Civil Code, which sets no cap in advance. Payment of injury compensation does not prevent the employee or their beneficiaries from receiving the end-of-service gratuity if its conditions are met (Article 92). And an employee may discover after the injury that the employer never enrolled them in social security at all, so that the two laws become intertwined in a single file.
7. An Injury Does Not Justify Termination of Employment
Article 27 of the Labour Law prohibits the employer from terminating the employee's service, or giving them notice of termination, during their sick leave, unless they work for another employer during that leave. Article 24 prohibits dismissing an employee because of complaints and claims they submit to the competent authorities concerning the application of the law to them. If the injury is followed by termination of employment, the file combines the injury dispute with a dispute over unfair dismissal under the Labour Law, and the lawyer arranges the two claims so that neither weakens the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the cases of work injury under Jordanian law?
An accident during work or because of it, an accident on the way to or from work under the conditions set by law, and contracting one of the occupational diseases listed in the schedule annexed to the Social Security Law. Whether these cases apply to a particular event is usually the point in dispute.
What are an employee's rights in the event of an injury?
The insured employee is entitled to medical care, daily allowances, and disability pensions or lump-sum compensation depending on the disability percentage, and their beneficiaries have rights in the event of death. Their right may extend to civil compensation from the employer if the injury resulted from gross fault, and assessing this requires studying the facts.
How is a work injury proven?
Proof rests on the establishment's notification to the Corporation, the medical reports, and the investigation the Corporation conducts or adopts. The lawyer checks the consistency of these documents with the account of the accident, because a single contradiction between them may be exploited to deny the link between the injury and the work.
Can an employee sue the employer in addition to what social security pays?
This is not permitted for an insured employee unless the injury resulted from gross fault by the establishment under Article 37 of the Social Security Law, and proving that fault is the core of the lawsuit.
Are the injured person's rights lost if they were the one at fault?
Article 31 of the Social Security Law removes the injured person's right to the daily allowance and lump-sum compensation if the injury resulted from an intentional act on their part, from the consumption of alcoholic beverages or drugs, or from their violation of announced treatment or safety instructions where this was a principal cause of the injury. This loss of rights does not apply if the injury results in death, total disability, or permanent partial disability of not less than 30%.
Legal Consultation
Work injury files are among the most sensitive labor disputes, whether on the side of the employee facing a loss of income and a disability that may stay with them, or on the side of the employer who may be held liable for a fault that goes beyond what social security covers. Leaving a medical assessment unchallenged in time, or signing a release prematurely, can extinguish a right that is hard to recover later. For specialist legal consultation in labor cases and employee rights, or to read about civil compensation for damage and an employee's entitlements at the end of service, you can contact Alabwini Law Firm & Legal Consultancy.
