"I am a Bahraini but my life is worse than a free-visa expat labourer”... biased contracts leave 50 unemployed overnight!

Zeinab Youssef, 32, was taking care of a group of students at Bahrain Awalan event when her phone rang. The next few seconds were really horrifying as she would come to know that her job is gone.   An employee with an outsourcing company, she was working for the Education Ministry until then and now she is another unemployed Bahraini.  

Zeinab’s is not a lone story; she is among the 50 Bahrainis who lost their jobs overnight after the Education Ministry cancelled its arrangement with the outsourcing company. The victims don’t see a way forward and many fear arrests after defaulting on their loans.    No notice period was served to them, whose lives were brought to a standstill by a single phone call.   They say the contract they signed with the outsourcing company was highly biased. It carried provisions to fire them, anytime, any day the company desired. But, why did they sign this “biased” contract? The answer is very simple - their cir - cumstances. 

“I had to sign the contract because my financial conditions were not that good. My monthly salary (BD250) was a great relief to my family of three. I was doing many jobs to make both ends meet. During the summer when the schools were closed and I had no salary, I worked as a cook at Batelco Child Welfare Centre, where I was paid BD10 a day. I am a Bahraini but my life is worse than a free-visa expat labourer.”