Bahrain to relax labour laws

Bahrain plans to relax its rules governing expatriate workers to be in line with the island's current drive to promote a free economy. Labour and Social Affairs Minister Abdulnabi Al Sho'ala told Gulf News yesterday, "Relaxing the rules and making them flexible is both in the interest of sponsors and workers alike and such a change would help create a better atmosphere and eliminate some of the current problems prevailing in the labour market".

Al Sho'ala submitted a memorandum to the cabinet which discussed it last Sunday. In his memo, he said the move would help provide greater flexibility in the procedures for the "in-country transfer of foreign labour". It would ease the formalities. The cabinet decided to refer the memo to the ministerial committee for social and family services.

Speaking to Gulf News, Abdulnabi Al Sho'ala said, "The current system of sponsorship is too tight and it is not in keeping with the needs of the time." He wants expatriate workers to be able to change jobs without difficulty. Citing an example Al Sho'ala said: "In the current situation an expatriate worker has to continue to work for his sponsor even if he has not been paid for six months. What we are planing to do is to entitle expatriate workers to find other jobs if they are not paid continuously for three months.

"What is happening now is expatriate workers run away from local sponsors when they do not get their salaries for long, causing illegal employment and related problems. "There are cases of expatriate workers coming on contracts for a specific period for a specific project. Once the project is complete, in some cases, local sponsors do not send these workers back to their home bases as they have to pay for air tickets.

They let them remain in the island and work illegally. "There are cases of companies going bankrupt and leaving the workers in the lurch forcing them to seek jobs illegally. Since they are illegal workers they do not get the benefits to which they otherwise are entitled to under labour law. "In current circumstance it is also difficult to gather reliable information about foreign workers here," said Al Sho'ala.

India has the largest workforce here and the Indian Ambassador Surinder Singh Gill said: "We welcome this move in principle." He said he hoped the proposed new law would have a mechanism to ensure the workers got their rightful payments from their sponsors before they changed sponsors. He said there were cases of workers not having been paid for more than two years.

"It appears to be a very fine move as it would provide freedom to workers to change jobs in the event of their being not looked after by their sponsors," said the new Pakistani Ambassador, Lt. Gen. (retd) Mohammed Shafeeq.

"It is a very good and timely move by the Labour and Aocial Affairs Minister as it will help all alike and eliminate many problems for everyone," said the Bangladesh Ambassador Anwarul Alam.
Philippines Ambassador Rodolfo Dumapias said: "We welcome the move to relax the laws to make it easier for workers to change their jobs as it will also help Bahraini sponsors who need the services of expatriate workers."