Manama, September 10: More than 17,000 lowly-paid Bahraini employees have benefited from a government initiative aiming to improve salaries of local manpower.
The National Programme of Improving Salaries was launched in 2006 with the aim to convince private sectors to accept BD250 as minimum wage for local employees, Assistant Undersecretary of the Labour Affairs at the Ministry of Labour, Sabah Al Dosairi told Khaleej Times on Wednesday.
He said that the Ministry has not yet reached its target of BD250 minimum wage for Bahrainis, as the beneficiaries are those who were receiving BD150 and negotiations with employers resulted in salary increment of BD50.
“Those getting BD150 and less weren’t recruited through the National Employment Programme as we don’t approve employment of locals for less than BD200 for secondary school graduates, BD250 for Diploma holders and BD300 for university graduates.”
Al Dosairi is optimistic that the salaries of local manpower would increase gradually because of the country’s labour reforms.
Although the efforts of the government are appreciated but the General Secretary of the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Union, Salman Mahfood, demanded no less than BD500 as minimum wage for Bahrainis.
He also demanded the formation of a wage watchdog panel to push for regular salary increment in line with inflation for all workers regardless of their nationalities.
–Agencies