Shura Panel Urges Second No Vote on Master’s Degree Rule for Expat Public Jobs

TDT | Manama

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The Shura Council’s Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee has urged members to again reject an MPs’ draft law that would require a master’s degree and at least 10 years’ experience before expats can be contracted into public-sector jobs, arguing the same safeguards already sit in the Civil Service Law and its rules.

The Council is due to vote for a second time on the draft at its next session on Sunday, after the Council of Representatives sent it back once more.

MPs want clearer limits on contracts for non-Bahrainis in government posts. Alongside the master’s degree requirement and the 10-year experience threshold, the proposal would cap the contract at two years with one renewal for a similar period, and make training a Bahraini part of the contractor’s duties, with the aim of giving citizens first call on public jobs and building local skills.

In its report, the committee said the text before the Council is a second reading. It recalled that the Shura Council had already rejected the draft in principle and returned it to the elected chamber, but MPs reviewed it, held to their approval, and referred it back to the upper chamber.

The committee said it had reviewed the Council of Representatives’ decision and the reasons given for it, but found the Shura Council’s earlier grounds stronger and so repeated its recommendation to reject the draft on the same basis.

It pointed to Article 16 of the Constitution, which gives Bahrainis priority in public office and allows the use of non-Bahrainis only in cases set by law. The committee said this is already built into the Civil Service Law and its implementing rules.

The committee added that the Civil Service Law requires Bahraini nationality for appointment, while allowing an exception when no suitable national candidate can be found, with the details left to the implementing regulations and instructions from the Civil Service Bureau.

It said the draft’s main conditions include proving there is no Bahraini candidate, setting study and work-experience requirements, and checking again at renewal that the same need still exists. The committee said these points are already covered by current rules. It added that the implementing regulations deal with them in a way that leaves more room to match different jobs and their technical and professional needs.

The committee also cited the Civil Service Bureau’s work with government bodies on a national plan to localise jobs, saying this led to a 23 per cent fall in contracts to employ non-Bahrainis between 2019 and 2024.

It ended by renewing its earlier recommendation that the Shura Council should reject the draft in principle, on the grounds that existing law is sufficient to meet its stated aims.