BAHRAIN’S labour watchdog has introduced new rules under which companies will need to submit job contracts in Arabic, for hiring workers or in case of local transfer request.
The rules which came into effect from last Sunday makes it mandatory for employers to attach a copy of the bilingual contract to ensure there is no exploitation such as contract substitution.
“We have introduced from March 1 rules under which employers have to attach a copy of the bilingual labour contract for new applications or local transfer requests,” said Labour Market Regulatory Authority’s (LMRA) chief executive Ausamah Al Absi.
“Our dedicated labour offices in Sehla and in Riffa will provide translation services to foreign workers to ensure no details related to their job contracts get lost in translation.”
The official said the offices that were opened last month aim to assist workers who pay more than BD20 to get their Arabic job contracts translated into English.
“Their documents will be translated free of cost at our offices, without missing any details and will be admissible in court.
“Judges require translated job contracts and sometimes the translation is bad, but now with this process, they have proper documents that are verified by our staff.”
He stressed the LMRA system will not accept any application without an employment contract, as part of the revised mechanisms.
Mr Al Absi said the process will help a worker in lodging complaints and explaining his claim with a proper translated document, leaving no room for ambiguity or exploitation.
In 2017, the Labour and Social Development ministry handled 1,769 complaints of unpaid wages, compared with just 276 cases in 2013, 1,386 in 2014, 1,316 in 2015 and 1,535 in 2016.
There were a total of 594,944 foreign workers employed in Bahrain by the end of the second quarter last year, while 153,103 Bahrainis were in jobs, according to the latest LMRA market indicators.
Meanwhile, the LMRA has sent 800,000 text messages in the past few days to individuals registered in its database as part of an awareness campaign to update them on the latest information about coronavirus (Covid-19).
“We sent 400,000 text messages on Tuesday and before that we had forwarded 400,000 messages to foreign workers registered in our database as part of measures within the framework of the national campaign to combat Covid-19.”
However, Mr Al Absi stressed the importance of carrying out a mandatory medical examination of domestic workers.
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