FINES totalling BD71,000 have been slapped on rogue manpower agencies providing illegal cleaning services on an hourly basis, it has been revealed.
This followed raids carried out by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), targeting unscrupulous individuals and companies breaking the law.
Housemaids or cleaners are not authorised to work on an hourly basis in Bahrain.
“Forty-four companies were referred to the Public Prosecution as action was launched against establishments which employed workers to provide cleaning services on an hourly basis,” said the labour watchdog’s legal control deputy chief executive Dr Khalid Ahmed.
“During the raids, 238 unlawful domestic workers were identified while 3,800 expatriates, including illegal workers, were arrested,” he added.
Dr Ahmed said court verdicts against the violating cleaning firms resulted in fines of BD71,000, from 2018 until last year.
The GDN previously reported that a shortage of domestic workers for hourly jobs opened the doors for runaways to be hired by unscrupulous individuals and companies.
Hourly-paid workers were offered illegally by rogue manpower agencies as nurses and care assistants putting lives at risk because they were neither trained nor licensed.
It is believed that families are being tempted to use the services due to cost considerations, as job losses and pay cuts during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have severely hit family budgets.
Dr Ahmed said one of the reasons for domestic workers abandoning their sponsors was low salary, of up to BD80 per month.
“Other causes include mistreatment, delay in payment of wages or non-payment of wages.”
The LMRA lists 82 licensed manpower agencies authorised to employ foreign workers, including domestic staff, and details are available on its website lmra.bh.
Dr Ahmed added that inspectors conducted 178 campaigns against unlicensed recruitment agencies which illegally hire domestic workers.
Meanwhile, on Sunday 13 inspectors took the oath of office in the presence of LMRA chief executive Jamal Al Alawi who directed them to carry out their work with total honesty while respecting the rights of the expatriates.
According to the latest LMRA statistics, 65,628 domestic workers (including 45,962 females) were employed in Bahrain in 2020 Q4.
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