Unemployment must be tackled first, says GFBTU

Manama : The first priority of the government in its goal to improve the labour market should be to curb the unemployment problem, a leading labour union leader said yesterday.

General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU), Assistant Secretary for international relations, Karim Radhi, said that although the government has made progress curbing unemployment, more needs to be done. He said that certain sections of the society like the special needs community and recent graduates are struggling to find employment.

“According to the government data, unemployment stays at four per cent. If you look at it across the board, it looks okay but there are certain sections of the society that are really struggling to find work. For example, the special needs community and recent graduates find it more difficult to find employment and may stay unemployed for long. This is where the real problem of unemployment lies. There are so many graduates who have been without a job even after 5 years after graduation,” he said. “So this is an area that the government should have as a priority,” he added.

“There should also be better cooperation between labour unions and the companies. There should be dialogues to identify the issues earlier and to solve them early,” he said.

“In many cases, companies do not collaborate with the labour union as much they had initially agreed to. While there may have been mechanism that was put in place, they are often overlooked,” he said.