Shura Council panel rejects plan for a fixed cap on foreign workers’ permits

TDT | Manama

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Plans to make Bahrain’s labour market authorities set a national ceiling on work permits for foreign workers face a hurdle in the Shura Council.

The council’s Services Committee has urged members to reject a draft amendment to the Labour Market Regulation Law when it comes up for debate on Sunday.

Under the proposal — already approved by Parliament — Article 4 of Law No. 19 of 2006 would be revised so that the national labour market plan must set a maximum number of work permits the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) can issue within a given period.

Current wording only states that the plan may include such a ceiling.

Recommendation

Committee members, supported by the LMRA, the Ministry of Labour and the government’s legal advisers, have recommended that the Shura Council should not agree in principle to the amendment.

While the draft retains the overall structure of Article 4, it tightens one key sentence.

The revised plan, prepared by the Labour Ministry in coordination with the LMRA and approved by the Cabinet every four years, would be obligated to include an upper limit on total work permits — whether across all sectors or defined by occupation or economic activity.

Draft

In its review, the Shura Council’s Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee confirmed that the draft is constitutionally and legally sound.

In its report, the Services Committee says the current law was written in a way that allows the LMRA to respond to economic shifts and emergency events without having to wait for amendments to pass through the legislature.

The national plan runs for four years.

If a compulsory ceiling is set at the start of each period and left in place until the end, the committee argues, the labour market may be left with numbers that no longer match actual demand if new needs arise in key sectors halfway through.

The committee also questions how far the proposed wording would reduce the volume of permits in practice.

It says public bodies asked to set a ceiling for a four-year plan are likely to choose a high figure that covers as many future scenarios as possible, which would leave the legal change as a formality while the limit itself remains broad enough to absorb both expected and unexpected demand.

Abroad

Another point raised is that work permits are not all used to bring in new workers from abroad.

A large share relates to foreign workers already living in Bahrain who move from one employer to another as demand shifts.

A single compulsory ceiling on total permits, the report notes, could limit this movement, reduce room for adjustment in the market and place extra pressure on businesses, without directly shrinking the foreign workforce.

Progress

On the question of job opportunities for citizens, the Services Committee argues that progress depends on training, qualifications and wage support rather than simply cutting numbers of permits.

It says the employment of Bahrainis rests on preparing people for the skills employers seek in an open market and on continuous training and incentives delivered through government programmes, rather than on a numerical cap alone.