More than 100 workers who reside in the company’s labour camp have either resigned because of unpaid wages or have been fired by the company, and many of them now live in Bahrain with irregular status because the company failed to renew their visas. With expired identity cards and visas, many workers fear being detained by the police and are worried to leave to find another job or even go to the clinic. One worker said: “I was told seven months ago by the management to not come to duty anymore and that there’s no longer any job for me, however, they haven’t returned my passport or given me a ticket to go home or a release to find another job. For 7 months now I am only sitting in the camp with no job and no place to go”
An Indian national working as a mason for 6 years told MR that he finished his contract with two months pending salary, but the company refused to return his passport or provide him with a ticket and end of service benefits. His visa expired in January this year and he has been irregular since.
Awful living conditions in the labour camp
Lack of food provision and safe and proper accommodation only adds more misery to their plight. In some cases, up to 12 people live in a single, overcrowded room (Bahrain law - Opens in new tab stipulates a maximum of 8 people per room). There is no running water in the showers or kitchen and the workers use water buckets to clean themselves. Many of the toilets do not work.
Above all, the safety standards in the camp are hazardous to workers’ health: there are no safety valves on the gas cylinders used for cooking, the fire extinguishers are obsolete, and many air-conditioners are in poor condition.
The workers told MR that each worker pays BD 1 (USD 2.65) per month for cooking gas and that they even had to buy the stoves themselves. There are no refrigerators in the camp either.
Struggling to survive without food and money, the workers have been relying on a handful of cold stores around the labour camp that have lent them food and groceries. One of the workers in the camp said that “we have been borrowing food and groceries from the cold stores since we don’t have money, each of us here owes 20 to 25 BD to the cold stores every month which we have to pay when we get our wages back.”
The cashier of a nearby cold store told MR that the workers in the camp have had a tab of about BD 4,000 since the beginning of the year.“We have workers coming from everywhere asking for food and groceries, promising to pay back as soon as they receive their wages, we have to give them otherwise how will they live?” he said while flipping through his account book, a record of the large sums of money owed to him.
Legal cases and settlements
According to DT News - Opens in new tab, the Labour Ministry Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs Dr Mohammed Ali Al Ansari said that the ministry is investigating the allegations, that negotiations are underway with the owners of the company and that they have agreed to make the payments soon. The Bangladesh Embassy labour consul Shaikh Tahidul Islam also told Gulf Daily News - Opens in new tab that their diplomats were negotiating with the company's owners to ensure the workers are paid soon.
One of the workers who filed a case against the company told MR that his case is still pending because the employer didn’t show up at court. “I have gone to the court 4 times now and I still haven’t received my wages.”
Article 40 (c) of Bahrain’s Labor law, stipulates:
“If the employer shows delay in the disbursement of the worker’s wage, said employer shall pay to the worker an annual compensation equivalent to 6% of the wage in respect of which a delay was shown during six months or less as of the date of payment of the wage. This rate shall be subject to a 1% increase for each month of delay after said period without exceeding 12% of the wage per year.”
It’s to be seen if the workers will receive their due wages with compensation as stated by the labour law, however many of the workers of the construction company G P Zachariades who protested earlier this month have not received their settlements or wages for more than a year now - Opens in new tab.
