Shura passes GCC insurance amendments adding unemployment cover for Bahrainis

TDT | Manama

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Shura Council members yesterday passed, on an urgent basis, a draft law backing amendments to the GCC’s unified system for extending social insurance cover to citizens working in another member state.

The move brings Bahrainis employed across the Gulf under Bahrain’s unemployment insurance branch and directs new wage deductions into the Unemployment Insurance Account.

Under the change, a Bahraini working in a GCC country will pay 1 per cent of their insured wage towards unemployment insurance, with the employer paying a matching 1 per cent, in line with Article 6 of Decree-Law No. 78 of 2006 on unemployment insurance.

Shura Council committees said the measure would add cash inflows to the Unemployment Insurance Account, without a direct effect on the state budget, either on public revenue or recurring spend.

System

Hala Ramzi, rapporteur of the Services Committee, told the chamber the unified system was created to give GCC citizens working outside their home states “stability and social reassurance”.

She said the amendments continue that aim by widening cover in step with changes in the Gulf labour market.

The draft law, she said, “targets, in particular, activating the unemployment insurance branch”, giving workers “temporary protection if they lose their job, through financial compensation during the period of unemployment, in line with the controls and conditions set by the relevant laws”.

Debate

During the debate, Shura member Dr Ebtisam Al Dallal said the bill touched “the core of shared Gulf citizenship’, and that a GCC citizen working in another member state “should not feel that their future is threatened when they become unemployed”.

She said the move follows economic shifts across the region and argued that a shared labour market depends on rights travelling with the worker.

First deputy chairman Jamal Fakhro said the unified system has been in force since 2006, with Bahrainis working abroad insured through Bahrain’s social insurance system and GCC citizens working in Bahrain insured through schemes in their home states.

He said the draft law does two things: “adding unemployment insurance, which was not included in the existing law, and amending some procedures that need adjustment”.

Questions

He raised questions about who pays in cross-border cases, noting that in Bahrain unemployment insurance is covered by “three parties: the employer, the employee and the government”.

Fakhro asked: “Will GCC governments and companies in the Gulf commit to paying the one per cent? And will Bahrain also bear what other GCC states impose even if their rate is higher than one per cent?”

Sahar Al Mannai, chief executive of the Social Insurance Organisation, told members the bill was “a step to strengthen the social protection system in GCC states”, adding that Bahrain has been ‘ahead’ in this field.

She said unemployment insurance began in Bahrain in 2006 and the new law would “secure the rights of citizens working in GCC states”, while the details of how it will work “will become clearer after the law is issued”.

Rules

The lawmaker said GCC states would study unemployment insurance rules together ‘to ensure the right details for each state, while respecting each state’s systems and laws’.

Al Mannai said the organisation publishes figures every quarter and that the latest data shows 4,473 Bahrainis working in GCC states.

She said the organisation is explaining the measure and its duties through formal notices to employers, social media and online channels, along with workshops and guidance material, alongside joint awareness work among GCC states.

On enforcement, she pointed to Article 12 and said it will need focused work with Bahrain’s private sector.

She said the rules include ‘calculating additional amounts on private-sector employers when they delay paying the insurance contributions due for GCC citizens’, adding that the organisation aims to play ‘an awareness role’ in raising compliance.