on February 10, 2010 by admin in Expats, Comments (2)
New Bahrain Labour Law Stirs Hornet’s Nest?
Bahrain’s move to become the first Gulf state to scrap the controversial sponsorship system for expatriates, likely to be hailed by rights activists, has sparked concerns among the business community and the federation of trade unions.
Labour Minister Majeed Al Allawi on Monday said Bahrain would implement a new labour law on August 1 that allows foreign workers to switch jobs without their existing employer’s consent. “This is the end of the sponsorship system, which does not differ much from slavery,” the minister said.The new law, a major demand by human rights activists, allows foreign workers to move to new jobs simply by informing their existing employers of their intention to end the contract. The notice should be made through registered mail and according to the timeframe stipulated in the employment contract, but must not exceed three months.
“The new employer will then register the worker with the labour authorities, but he or she will have to produce the end of contract notice sent to the former employer,” Al Allawi said.
According to the minister, the new law, applicable to both the public and private sectors, guarantees the rights of the employers and employees.
“The law definitely improves the working conditions in Bahrain, will help increase salaries and wages and will eliminate the infamous free visa practice,” said Al Allawi, a former opposition figure who was given the labour portfolio in 2002. “The application of this law will also boost the chances of Bahrainis getting jobs since employers will no longer be able to force expatriates to stay on and will put an end to the practice by some people who bring in workers and dump them in the market in return for monthly fees.”
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Tags: Al Allawi, Bahrain, employer, Hornet's, human rights activists, labour, law, Minister Majeed, Nest, registered mail, sponsorship system, Stirs
S K
February 10, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
Bahrain has already implemented this and the law was put on the official gazette and it gets implement 3 months from the date its put there. August 1 is the day when it would be implemented. Its a very good and far reaching change and makes the expats on par with the citiizens in terms of law. The modern day slavery that the employers do now would slowly come to an end.
Hope other GCC countries do it especially those countries like Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar who still withhold employee’s passport
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tin m
February 10, 2010 @ 8:24 pm
Bahrain is still studying this and it is not a final say on the matter. The scrapping of sponsorship as it currently exists was not originally a Bahrain initiative, it was put forward before by former UAE minister Al Ka’abi who suggested such a move, by making the sponsorships go thru a unified government labor agency / authority that would regulate this directly for foreign workers, in order to combat abuse of the system by some shady foreign business owners who use it as a cover for human trafficking, prostitution, and such. But he is out of office and the current minister seems to have chosen a different way to deal with this. Plus as the article you quote states, Bahrain’s move is to help its own citizens get jobs in segments where sponsorship providers only employ foreign workers preventing them from finding better jobs by threatening to cancel their visas and such , they of course can’t threaten a Bahraini local so they do not employ them. Removing the sponsorship requirement for foreigners puts them on equal footing with local workers and at the same time help locals get jobs in that segment.
You know, even in US if you do not have a sponsor you are not granted an employment / study visa , not counting the visit visa of course. Even a visiting family member need to be sponsored. So those so called human rights activists are really having double standards when it comes to their own countries using the same. At least in GCC countries there is no profiling for people who happen to be from a different religion or wear things in a certain way, and foreign residents do not have to report to immigration every 3 months to verify their status, nor are they subject to wire tapping under “patriot act” laws. In contrast all these exists in US laws , and people you refer to as expatriots in GCC, the US refers to them as “aliens”.
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