“The new labour which has been enforced on September 3, 2012 tackled most of the issues but the law remains silent on many uncertainties and inefficiencies,” Hatem Zu’bi, Partner at Zu’bi & Partners, Attorneys and Legal Consultants said.
The new Bahrain Labour Law of 2012 has introduced several changes from its predecessor in many different areas such as women’s rights, overtime pay, holiday entitlements, sick leave, end of service indemnity and compensation calculations, to name but a few.
Hatem reviewed the changes as well as their overall impact on financial institutions going forward.
Organised by the Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB) and titled the New Bahrain Labour Law 2012 Review held at Dana Ballroom at Ixir, Kempinski Hotel and attended by over 100 members of the BAB, private sector stakeholders, lawyers and heads of the human resources departments from major organisations.
Earlier, last month the Labour Minister Jamil Humaidan described the new private sector labour law as one of the key legislations regulating the relationship between the workers and their employers.
Highlighting the main advantages and features of the new law, he said the relationship between the employers and employees has many effects on the society. Therefore, the economic and social balance brought about by the new law will undoubtedly contribute to stability of the labour market and economic growth.
“As a matter of fact, the Kingdom of Bahrain, represented by the Labour Ministry, has been keen to upgrade this legislation being one of the key mechanisms which contribute to employing the national labour force and, consequently, solving unemployment,” the Labour Minister said, describing September 1, 2012 as a turning point in Bahrain’s labour legislation when the new labour law went into effect as per royal decree number 36 for 2012, ending 36 years of the previous law issued in decree-law 23 for 1976 and its amended provisions.