Bahrain Mirror: The Ministry of Labor failed to implement the legal violation approved by the cabinet, Shura council and parliament, regarding the distribution of labor representation seats in the board of directors of the Public Authority for Social Insurance. The cabinet decided in a previous session to distribute three labor seats on the following way: one for The General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions, one for the Bahrain Labor Union Free Federation and another to be alternated between the two unions. This contradicts with what has been approved by the International Labor Organization that the most represented labor union is the one that represents them in the administrations which the law gives the labor unions the right to be represented in.

The labor seats are still vacant since more than a year. The new law approved by the Shura council and the parliament in the previous legislation stipulates that "the general federation" cannot monopolize the three seats allocated for labor unions. Each labor union should nominate its representatives to the government represented by the Ministry of Labor, which will chooses three names from among the candidates.

As there are only two labor unions, the General Federation and the Free Federation, the Ministry of Labor sought to bring the two unions into accord by choosing a candidate from each union to two seats in addition to an alternating third seat between both, which the ministry failed to achieve. The General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions refused to waive its right guaranteed by the International Conventions on Workers, since it's the largest labor union in Bahrain.

The head of the Bahrain Labor Union Free Federation said in a statement to the Al-Ayam newspaper, backed by the royal court: "In the last communications and meetings between us and the minister of labor, the minister asked us to waive our right and consider the labor interests. It is not acceptable that we give up our representation for the interest of of workers. It is enough that we have been deprived of representation since 2011."

As for choosing the labor representative in events outside the country, he said: "According to my information, the cabinet concluded that it should be alternating between both. However, we were surprised by a statement issued by the Ministry of Labor showing that this will only be implemented this year and that later on it will put a clear mechanism to be adopted for the coming years." "We hear these things every year and there has not been any mechanism since the emergence of the Free Federation," he added.

The Ministry of Labor refused to adopt the free federation as the largest labor federation, since the majority of the laborers registered in its lists are foreigners.

The Arabic Issue