A flexi-visa electrician, who worked for a construction company without a contract or sponsorship, has won a suit in the Lower Civil Court to be compensated for unpaid wages.
According to the court, the Bangladeshi expatriate was not paid BD718.500 worth of wages by the company, despite delivering the services he was hired to provide.
Although he worked with them for three months, between August and October 2024, the company reportedly claimed it had no working relationship with him, since it did not sponsor his visa.
After fruitlessly asking for his wages, the 48-year-old took to the civil court to demand his dues, represented by lawyer Manal Dhahi.
“We were able to prove that the plaintiff did work with the defendant company,” the attorney told the GDN, having provided punch cards as evidence that the expatraite had indeed delivered his side of the bargain.
“Many flexi-visa labourers suffer from this, when employers and contractors exploit the lack of a formal work relationship to cheat them out of their dues,” she claimed.
The Lower Civil Court judge not only ordered the company to pay the plaintiff the BD718.500 it owed him, but to also compensate him for miscellaneous expenses related to the case.
The defendant was ordered to pay BD5 for translation fees, BD20 for attorney fees, BD49 for the cost of the lawsuit, and BD10 in court fees.
The court rejected a lawsuit against the Bangladeshi owner of the company, only obliging the firm to pay compensation to the electrician.
Punch cards for each of the three months were presented to the court. The court heard that the electrician was paid an hourly rate of BD1, six days a week and 10 hours a day.
He earned BD239.500 in August, BD232.500 in September and BD246.500 in October, working a total of more than 718 hours.
“I’m employed at another firm owned by the company’s owner,” a witness, a colleague of the labourer’s, told the Public Prosecution. “He worked as an electrician but he wasn’t paid.”
A defence witness, who was responsible for transporting workers, claimed that he only drove the plaintiff to the site in August, and not in the two months after that.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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