Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Nothing justifies the Bahraini government not paying private sector workers directly, especially since the decision to pay wages includes employees registered in the Social Insurance Authority.

Bahraini workers working in the private sector complain that their wages have been delayed, even though the government transferred the pay of Bahrainis working in the private sector to the accounts of the companies they work for. 

The government has decided to pay BD215 million to Bahraini employees working in the private sector covering April, May and June from the Unemployment Fund, as part of economic initiatives to counter the effects of the Coronavirus outbreak.

However, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development did not directly pay the salaries to employees, but rather transferred them to the companies' accounts.

Minister Jameel Hmaidan said on Sunday (April 24, 2020) that companies and institutions have already begun paying their Bahraini employees, noting that "the vast majority of them received their wages for April easily."

However, many workers in the sector, which employs about 96,000 Bahrainis, say they have not received their incomes yet.

A worker in a construction and manufacturing company said the company did not pay his salary although it received the wages because of the Bahraini employees who have registered in the Social Insurance Authority.

He says the government should have deposited wages directly through the Social Insurance Authority in workers' accounts and not leave them to companies to tamper with.

Other employees complain that their companies have deducted their insurance benefits from their salaries, although the Government said it deducted insurance contributions before the wages were transferred.

Another worker says that the company he works for informed him that half of his annual leave had been deducted since the work was suspended. 

While the minister says that the ministry "monitored minor cases of complaints that are currently being followed up and resolved", workers depreciated the outcome of his statements.

The ministry has set up telephone numbers dedicated to receiving workers' complaints about salary pay, and since Tuesday it has received hundreds of complaints confirming that many workers did not receive their wages, in addition to the deduction of insurance benefits for a second time.

This information shows that the ministry needs to tighten its measures towards companies or change the mechanism of pay to be disbursed directly by the Social Insurance Authority.

Bahraini companies, like others in the region, are facing difficult economic conditions due to the country's economic stagnation and consequences of the Coronavirus outbreak.

Arabic Version