BAHRAIN’S rights watchdog has registered a case filed by former employees of a construction company, which is in the midst of resolving a major wage dispute.
G P Zachariades (GPZ) Civil Engineering and Contractors has started settling pending salaries of hundreds of employees after it received nearly BD1 million from the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry.
The GDN reported on August 3 that the amount, which was late payment for construction projects GPZ undertook for the ministry, was transferred into a joint bank account between GPZ and the Labour and Social Development Ministry.
However, a group of expatriates, representing 142 former employees, have claimed they have been sidelined by the company and have yet to receive their dues.
They presented a petition to National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) secretary general Dr Khalifa bin Ali Al Fadhel, who met the group and assigned his office to look into the issue.
“We have received the petition and we will monitor the situation and follow up the cases individually,” Dr Al Fadhel told the GDN.
“If their petition falls within the mandate of NIHR, which is a violation of human rights, we will step in to assist them.
“An official has been assigned to this job.”
GPZ previously said it was owed tens of millions of dinars by government and private clients, without which it was unable to support its workforce.
After receiving the amount on August 2, the company settled its dues to 92 Bahraini employees followed by around 400 expatriate staff.
Labour Affairs assistant under-secretary Dr Mohammed Al Ansari said at the time that the funds were enough to settle all the pending wages including that of the former staff.
However, the ex-employees have claimed they were yet to receive their dues from the company.
“We were hopeful that we will be paid, but we have no information and no one called us from the ministry or the company,” said one of the employees on the condition of anonymity.
“Officials at the Labour (and Social Development) Ministry told us that there are two groups amongst us, those who filed a legal case and those who didn’t, and that the payment would differ with each group.
“However, this was not the information given to us before and even on this new information there is no confirmed statement by any official.
“We feel we are being side-lined and our rights are being violated, hence we went to the NIHR.”
Agreement
The men from India, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka, quit from senior positions at GPZ last year after an agreement was reached to have their pending salaries paid in instalments.
In the last year they have visited the ministry complex in Zayed Town multiple times, staged simultaneous walk-ins at their respective embassies, and conducted an online survey that showed 41 per cent of them were owed between BD3,000 and BD6,000, while 25.6pc were owed between BD6,000 and BD10,000.
The survey also showed that 97.6pc of the former employees was still living in Bahrain.
“We are owed over thousands of dinars, which doesn’t mean that we are rich and can afford to lose that money,” said another former employee.
“Fortunately, we are employed in other places now, but again that doesn’t mean we have matched our losses – we have loan instalments, education expenses and rent.
“We are also rightfully eligible to get paid for the work we did, and we believed the management’s promise that they would pay us in instalments when we quit.”
The GDN previously reported that GPZ was being monitored by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) over its repeated failure to pay its staff. GPZ officials could not be reached for a comment, while a senior labour official told the GDN that no update was available on the former employees’ situation.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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