New Minimum Wage for Kuwait's Expat Workers Paves the Way for Domestic Worker Reforms

Despite the inaction seen in Bahrain to institute a universal minimum wage for workers outside of the public sector, progressive measures are being taken by neighboring Kuwait to implement upgrades to its newly approved labor law.

The Trade Arabia News Source released an article recently that revealed the approval of a minimum wage for expatriate workers of approximately 207 USD per month. Although the salary is relatively small, this is a major milestone across the GCC countries, and especially within Kuwait; a country that has traditionally neglected the establishment of legal safeguards to protect its foreign population from exploitation and coercion by Kuwaiti citizens.

Kuwait's new labor law was approved earlier this year, and until that time, had not been reformed in over forty years.

Although a minimum wage is certain to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Kuwait's foreign workers, domestic workers are currently excluded from the new labor law.

The article also focused on promulgating legislation that would enforce a new minimum wage for Kuwait's estimated 600,000 domestic workers, employed as maids, drivers, gardeners and security guards. A proposed salary of 45 Kuwaiti Dinars (approximately 154 USD) is one of several reforms that will be included in the draft domestic worker law, along with amendments to enforce working hours, payment of wages and protection from abuse.

Such legislation would vastly improve the lives of domestic workers who are often forced to work 16-hour days. If the current draft law is approved by parliament, working hours for domestic workers would be limited to eight per day, employers would no longer be allowed to withhold passports, and workers would be allowed one day off per week and time-off during national holidays.

Skeptics still question the extent to which the government would be able to enforce the new law given the high sensitivity associated with domestic issues (within private homes) and how they should be regulated by the Ministry of Social Development (responsible for regulating all other foreign workers). For example, the new law would impose fines on employers who fail to pay their domestic workers, but there are no mechanisms in place to enforce or prove that a violation has been committed. Since most sponsors do not allow their domestic workers to contact their embassies or law enforcement agents, most cases go unreported.

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.

Minimum Wage in Bahrain In the Wake of Domestic Worker Discussion

In early April the Bahraini Parliament approved an unprecedented minimum wage law for government employees and members of the Armed Forces amounting to 300 Bahraini Dinars (BD) per month (approx. 795 USD).

The Gulf Daily News Reports that the new minimum wage law will take effect January 1, 2011 and will cost the Bahraini Government 100 million Bahrain Dinars annually and will incorporate the total 1,023 government employees currently receiving a salary lower than 300 BD per month, accounting for a total of 37,000 employees eligible for the new minimum wage.

The new minimum wage law will now be ratified by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Although a significant step forward, this minimum wage affects only a small percentage of Bahrain's workforce and does not consider salaries of migrant and domestic workers.

However, it appears that new attention is being focused on establishing a minimum wage for domestic female workers following a recent move by the Filipino Government's Office of Overseas Employment Administration, which is now demanding that salaries for its overseas housemaids be increased to 400 USD per month. Bahrain's Labor Market Regulatory Authority has already responded by stating that laws issued in the Philippines will not be binding in Bahrain.

Issues of a minimum wage and days-off for female expat workers were also the primary topics at a debate and subsequent roundtable discussion for selected prominent female activists at the Bahrain National Museum in late March.

Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) Women, Children and Minorities rights director Hala Ramzy Fayez said that all domestic workers should have the right to a minimum wage, weekly day of rest, be given maternity leave, and public holidays.

In a quotation from her organization's website, Ms Fayez stated that ""although on the whole, migrant workers enjoy labour rights and a good working environment, there are some sectors where some suffer from low pay, an inappropriate working environment and living conditions resulting in unpleasant experiences." She added that estimating the prevalence of abuse was difficult, given the lack of reporting mechanisms available - which in turn caused a lack of legal protection for domestic workers.