View this post on Instagram
MORE than 150 workers of a construction company took to the streets yesterday to protest against unpaid wages.
They claimed their employer, G P Zachariades (GPZ) Civil Engineering and Contractors, has not paid salaries to hundreds of its staff for nearly four months.
“There are Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Nepali workers who have not received their salaries and are struggling to survive,” said Pakistani Mohammed Azeem, who has worked for 10 years with the Bahrain-based company.
“The situation is worse now as most of us don’t have valid visas and money.”
Mr Azeem said about 200 workers decided yesterday to march from their camp in Sitra to the Labour and Social Development Ministry offices in Zayed Town to register their claims.
However, they were stopped by policemen midway and five workers’ representatives were taken to the ministry.
“Government officials are aware of our case as are the various embassies, but our situation has not improved.
“There were some lucky workers who received their pending wages and have moved on, but most of us are still stuck,” claimed Mr Azeem.
“We feel they (the employers) are humiliating us by putting us in this situation so they can claim payment from companies that owe them money.”
Meanwhile, ministry Under-Secretary Sabah Al Doseri said authorities were aware of the protest by the workers.
“They gathered near their camp in Sitra over the issue of unpaid wages,” he told the GDN yesterday.
“Talks are still ongoing with company officials on this matter; we managed to reduce the number of affected workers from the original 1,500 to 200.
“The matter will be finalised soon.”
The company has already settled outstanding salaries of hundreds of employees, after it received nearly BD1 million from the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry in August.
The money, which was a 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.
Workers have visited the ministry 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 were still living in Bahrain.
GPZ officials could not be reached for comment yesterday, but the company previously blamed late salaries on delays in receiving payment for work it carried out.
sandy@gdn.com.bh
&uuid=(email))