Bahrain's Reliance on Cheap Labor Justifies Inaction on Minimum Wage Implementation

In a rather unsurprising development that touched the English-speaking media of Bahrain, a senior representative of the Bahraini Government stated publicly that the implementation of a minimum wage for expatriate workers would directly harm the island Kingdom's economy and limit regional competitiveness. In his remarks to a human rights commission, the legal advisor for Bahrain's Ministry of Labor further commented that the implementation of a minimum wage will make businessmen reluctant to invest in Bahrain if it lacks the advantage of cheap labor.

Thankfully, a human rights activist responded by slamming the government's decision, rejecting government claims that a minimum wage would hurt the national economy, or that it was ample grounds to revoke the rights of laborers or infringe upon their human rights.

This is one, of several examples that trace back to a source of inaction by the Bahraini government to acknowledge the abuses of its migrant workers, who currently amount to over 50% of the country's overall population. A disconnect continues to prevail, wherein the Bahraini government fails to grant or even recognize fundamental rights that should be awarded to expatriate workers regardless of their nationality. It is unjust, and inhumane to recruit workers from abroad, to promise them wages, and then to either withhold or garnish those wages without any legal protections under a competent and capable government.

The average migrant worker makes under 80 Bahraini Dinars a month, a pitiful and nearly unlivable salary that forces many into dilapidated housing and enhanced exposure to disease and long-term health risks, due to limited caloric intake. Champions for this minimum wage are not even asking for more than this amount, they are just pushing for a system that will force companies to pay workers what they deserve in their contracts

This perpetual inaction certainly does not stop with the expatriate community living in Bahrain, national citizens themselves continue to fight for a legal minimum wage as well. Only recently did the government approve a minimum wage for government employees-how convenient. Cheap labor competition is the endemic response to local cries for employment for young Bahrainis seeking jobs but demanding higher salaries than their expatriate counterparts. The majority of the working class still lacks the same safeguards one would expect in a country that boasts a business friendly, economically diversified, and liberal working environment to the outside world. But it is becoming all too evident, and reaffirmed by the powers that be, that this facade can only be sustained by cheap labor. It would be more responsible of the Ministry of Labor to formulate solutions to its alleged economic precariousness, which apparently will be destabilized with the implementation of responsible and stimulating safeguards that improve the economic viability of life of the working class, rather than relying on a system that continues to subjugate, demoralize, and muster resentment for tens if not hundreds of thousands of Bahrain's residents.

This same representative also added that the Ministry of Labor had no intention of bringing Bahrain's 27,000 domestic workers under the new Labor Law, but that they would receive protection and be subjected to several rules and provisions that would ensure that their basic rights are safeguarded. HOW? It continues to baffle me how government representatives can continue to release formal statements that lack any evidentiary support. If domestic workers continue to remain outside of the jurisdiction of a labor law, there are no mechanisms in place that can shield them from: abuse, trafficking, withheld salaries or documentation, and exploitation. We need to see more tangible results or proposed ACTION following comments like these.

You have to give credit to those who can release public statements that clearly perpetuate a flawed system that is negatively impacting so many peoples' lives and lacks any attempts to correct those injustices.