Updated: August 8, 2009
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Business Tribune Press Release (21 July 2009): The UK based Oxford Business Group (OBG) held a press conference at the Ritz Carlton, Manama to launch The Report Bahrain 2009. Hatim Zu’bi, a Partner in the Firm was amongst the distinguished panel of speakers to launch the conference, where he spoke on labour law.
Bahrain Labour Law does not recognize redundancy and offers employees protection by imposing strict obligations employers to justify dismissals, without which, they are likely to face claims unfair dismissal and a possible order to pay compensation, according to international law firm. “Employers are cutting jobs by restructuring while employees are fighting back to secure their rights including using labour unions and the government support of stopping sackings in particular in the banking industry by urging banks to seek an alternativeroute other than resorting the dismissal of staff which I believe is inevitable if the banking industry was to survive,”said Hatim Zu’bi, Partner Qays H. Zu’bi Attorneys and Legal Consultants in speech at the launch of OBG Report 2009.
“However, as a result of the current global recession and in recognition of the economic pressures that businesses are now under, employers have been resorting to using “restructuring” and “reorganisation” of the business as a reason for dismissal in many cases, which is generally viewed by the Labour Courts as being a fair reason for dismissal, though each case is judged on its own merits,” he added. “With the creation of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority, LMRA, a quasi government body, the labour market is now being closely monitored and regulated giving employees further protection. For instance, the LMRA introduced strict obligations on companies to register their employees in order to stamp out any illegal practices and to ensure that the employees’ statutory rights under the Labour Law are being upheld.
Moreover, in addition to ensuring adherence to the rules of the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI), the government has over the past few years added certain allowances in order to secure employee rights in the eventuality of unemployment, injury, sickness or death. To add to this Tamkeen was created as a fund to develop Bahraini employee skills to enable them to fill in positions held by expatriates,” he said. “The upcoming labour law will be an important step towards regulating the labour market in the country. Another interesting development is the relaxing of sponsorship rules enabling foreign employees to resign and change jobs without obtaining the consent of their current employer so long as they abide by their contractual obligations relevant to notice period. “Whilst, it is clear that steps are being taken to counter the pressures of the global economic crisis by adopting measures aimed at offering greater stability to
businesses and their employees alike, the tremors of this economic disorder have not yet subsided and therefore we will all need to be agile, more tolerant and understanding of each others needs to enable us to survive this unprecedented crises,” he said.
