Construction firm workers to return to their homelands

Manama : A majority of the workers of a construction company who recently organized a public protest in Sanad will return to their home countries after resigning from their jobs.

A large percentage of the workers who protested have resigned and preparing to go back to their home country, according to an official source at Ministry of Labour and Social Development. 

All of the employees who staged the protest will have received payment by today, the official said.

“We are paying the salaries in batches. The first batch was paid on Wednesday, the second batch on Thursday and the third and final batch today and tomorrow. Many of them want to go back to their home country. So they are being paid the indemnity and the settlement amounts. There are others who will continue with the company,” the Ministry official said.

“The total number of workers at the company is around 1800 but not all of them faced issues. Many of them are subcontracted to other companies and their salaries were given by those companies. I cannot reveal the total amount that was paid, its confidential information of the company,” the official said, adding, “We know that delay is not because of the company, the company did their best to pay their workers. But the problem was that their clients had not settled them the pending payments. As a result the company lacked funds to pay salaries.”

Earlier this month, Labour and Social Development Minister, Jameel Humaidan, had announced that an agreement was reached between the Ministry and the company on the payment of the pending salaries. The move followed the directives of Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa to clear the workers’ salary arrears immediately.

“Following HRH Premier’s directives, the Labour and Social Development Ministry intensified its efforts and coordinated with the relevant parties to end the problem,” the Minister said on June 9. In June  close to a hundred workers had marched ON Estiqlal highway in Sanad, demanding the payment of the pending salaries.