Exclusive: Bahrain labour fees will stay

Bahrain Contractors Association (BCA) recently led protests demanding the government scrap the fees.

Bahrain’s Labour Minister has rejected a call from contractors and small business owners to remove a monthly fee of US $26.50 (BHD 10) for each expatriate worker they employ.

The Bahrain Contractors Association (BCA) recently led several protests outside the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) demanding the government scrap the fees which they claim are crippling their businesses.

In an exclusive interview with Construction Week HE Dr Majeed Al Alawi said he has “no intention whatsoever” to even look into the protestors claims.

“These fees have been negotiated with the Chamber of Commerce and 75% of businessmen have been paying them,” he said.

“Of the other 25% - the vast majority of them are not even members of the Chamber of Commerce, they’re small contractors or whatever who are involved in trafficking and illegal visa workers.

“They’re not paying the fees so we started taking them to court and so they started to demonstrate outside the LMRA.”

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Al Alawi, who is also chairman of the LMRA, called the protestors “shortsighted” and said the fees will bring long lasting benefits to the country by closing the cost gap between foreign and local workers.

He said the fees will actually be increased over time and should be set at $199 per expatriate worker per month, although gave no indication as to when an increase might occur.

Al Alawi said he is skeptical of the BCA’s claims that contractors are going out business due to the fees. He said no evidence has been provided and the only represent an increase of 3% to the cost of labour.

“I can’t believe that could break a company,” he said.

A spokesman for BCA, Ebrahim Yousef, said they have suspended their weekly protests while they gather support for their cause and discuss the issue with parliamentarians and government officials.

He said further action could follow if their talks are unsuccessful.

The labour fees were introduced in July last year and 80% of the money collected goes to the Labour Fund (Tamkeen). The money is spent on training programs for Bahraini nationals and assisting small to medium sized businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity.