Bill to bar domestic workers’ job change rejected

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

The government says domestic workers are free to seek a new, independent work permit once their permit or contract ends.

It has told MPs a draft law to keep them in household service or send them home would breach rights in the Constitution and in treaties Bahrain has signed.

The bill would stop domestic permits being turned into other work permits. A worker would have to stay in a home job or leave the country.

Losses

Backers say this would spare citizens losses and stop staff being used in roles not agreed at the start. Ministers say the plan sets a lasting ban on a whole class of workers even after they have met their duties under contract.

In their view, it limits the freedom to choose work and the freedom to contract. Both are protected by the Constitution and, they argue, may only be curbed in rare cases. Those grounds are not found here.

Notice

They add that ending or giving notice in a home job is often messy and hard to prove, unlike the routine steps used in most workplaces.

That makes the draft model hard to use for this group.

Government data show that moves from domestic service into unlike trades are scarce.

Most happen after a permit or contract runs out, when the worker stands in a new legal place and may lawfully seek an independent permit.

The paper also says the bill runs against the Labour Law for the Private Sector on equal treatment and non-discrimination, and against Bahrain’s pledges under ILO Convention No. 111 on discrimination in work.

Warning

It warns of two sets of rules pulling in different directions between the Labour Market law and the Labour Law for the Private Sector, which would weaken efforts to keep the market fair, clear and workable.

The government closes by saying there is no clear need for new law here and that the draft places unjustified limits on work and job moves.