Parliament yesterday unanimously approved an urgent proposal to include Bahraini employees working on temporary government contracts under the national retirement insurance system.
The proposal submitted by five MPs, led by Strategic Thinking Bloc spokesman Khalid Bu Onk, seeks to close what MPs described as a widening organisational and social gap affecting thousands of Bahrainis who work on temporary contracts without access to retirement benefits.
Under the proposal, temporary employees would have their service counted as insurable and become eligible for pension rights and privileges similar to permanent staff.
During the debate, Parliament and Shura Council Affairs Minister Ghanim Al Buainain said the government already had a regulatory framework in place that distinguished between permanent and temporary government contracts.
“A law was introduced last year stating clearly whether a government employee is hired on a permanent or temporary basis,” he noted, adding that the rules were already being applied across ministries.
His remarks, however, prompted a heated response from Mr Bu Onk, who argued that the real issue was not the classification of contracts but the growing number of Bahrainis ‘trapped in temporary employment without social protection’.
“This is not about whether contracts are labelled temporary or permanent – the issue is Bahrainis who have been stuck on temporary contracts for years,” Mr Bu Onk shouted during the session.
He recounted the case of a Bahraini woman from A’ali who has spent two years working in a government job under a temporary contract with no pension coverage.
“Expats get lavish government jobs while Bahrainis are on temporary contracts – this is unfair,” he claimed.
According to the explanatory memorandum attached to the proposal, expanding retirement insurance to temporary staff would enhance job fairness, improve government-sector efficiency by retaining skilled national workers, and provide social stability for a large segment of the workforce, its supporters suggest.
MPs stressed that many ministries have increasingly relied on temporary contracts in recent years, expanding a category of workers who remain outside the social protection system.
The memorandum further argues that the absence of pension coverage creates long-term financial insecurity and contradicts the state’s broader social protection goals.
It adds that the urgent submission was necessary to prevent the issue from worsening and to avoid future legal and regulatory complications.
The approved proposal also aims to pave the way for converting temporary contracts into permanent ones over time, creating an administrative environment that supports stability and equal treatment among government employees.
With unanimous approval from Parliament, it now moves to the Cabinet, which will study its legal and financial implications before making a decision.
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