A FRESH row has erupted at Alba, one of the largest smelters in the world, over non-payment of overtime wages, it has emerged.
Workers claim they should be paid for having worked on December 9 which was declared a holiday by His Majesty King Hamad after Bahrain’s national football team won the first ever Gulf Cup in 49 years.
Instead, the company reportedly granted a compensatory day off for around 2,000 employees who worked in four shifts that day.
The two unions at the company – the Alba Trade Union (ATU) and the Alba Labour Union (ALU) – have now urged the management to reconsider its decision.
“It was a momentous occasion for the entire nation because we won the Gulf Cup, but at the same time we cannot let production be affected,” said an ALU member.
“About 2,000 Alba employees worked in four different shifts on that day to ensure everything went on smoothly.
“However, we learned that the company did not pay the shift workers overtime for that particular day but added a day to their annual leave,” he claimed.
The unionist alleged the company had violated the labour law by not paying overtime to its employees for the extra hours worked.
“We were surprised to see a day added to our leave.
“The workers do not want compensatory off because most of them have a balance of days off which they can’t take because of the workload.”
He also claimed the management did not contact the union to explain the situation.
“We will wait until we receive our salaries for this month to see whether the overtime was added; if not, we plan to file a complaint with the Labour and Social Development Ministry.
“The company has money to reward our football team but does not want to pay us overtime,” he added.
During a live telecast on Bahrain TV on December 11 more than BD1.6 million was presented as rewards to the national football team.
Among the companies donating was Alba, Bapco, NBB, BBK, Gulf Air, Batelco and other Bahraini businesses.
On its social media, the ATU urged the company to reverse the decision.
It claimed that the management “made a unilateral decision to deprive shift workers of overtime wages and this is a clear violation of the labour law.”
Meanwhile, an ALU spokesman said yesterday there was growing resentment among workers on this issue.
“When employees cannot take days off because it affects the factory’s work, why do they give them compensatory offs rather than pay overtime,” he said.
Denying any wrongdoing, Alba said it had offered shift employees the option of a compensatory day off or apply for overtime.
“Alba gave December 9 as a public holiday for regular day employees despite being a non-governmental company,” said an Alba official following a query by the GDN.
“As for the shift employees, Alba has given them the option to either apply for overtime or have one day credited into their annual leave balance.”
Arbitration
Separately, the ATU has also urged the company to implement, before the start of 2020, a decision by the Labour Arbitration panel, supported by the Cassation Court, to grant 30 working days as annual leave.
However, the Alba official said the issue was still in arbitration with no decision taken yet.
According to its website as of 2018 the company employed 3,186 people with 83 per cent of them being Bahrainis.
It generated a profit and total comprehensive income of BD10.7m in Q3 2019 versus BD14.3m for the same period in 2018, down by 25 per cent year-over-year.
sandy@gdn.com.bh
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