Draft law expands GCC insurance cover

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Parliament has received a government bill to amend the Unified System that extends insurance cover to Gulf Co-operation Council citizens who work in another GCC member state.

The draft widens cover, sets firmer rules for collecting and reporting contributions, and seeks closer joint working between pension and social insurance bodies across the bloc.

According to the submission, the draft has two articles.

Article 1 approves amendments to the Unified System adopted by the Supreme Council in 2004. Article 2 is for implementation.

Legal Text

An annexed legal text carries three main articles. It replaces Articles 5, 6(3), 9, 11(2), 13, and 15 with new wording that sets the scope of cover to include retirement, old age, disability, death, and unemployment.

Insurance for work injuries and occupational disease may still follow the law of the state of employment.

Employers must insure their staff, file completed insurance forms with the civil retirement and social insurance bodies in both the state of work and the employee’s home state, and deduct and pay contributions each month.

Liability

The text also sets liability where staff are not registered or where wrong data are filed.

Two new articles are added: 9 bis and 19 bis. The first requires employers to inform pension and insurance bodies of any change to staff pay.

The second states that paying an end-of-service gratuity or any other sum does not bar the recovery of rights due to the employee or to the pension and insurance body under the system.