House assent to restrict ‘certain jobs’ in private sector to citizens

The parliament yesterday approved a proposal to restrict certain professions to Bahraini citizens. Approving the proposal, the lawmakers claimed that most high and middle level posts in the private sector were going to expatriates, causing Bahrainis to miss out on lucrative opportunities. They highlighted the need for a law to be in place, which would restrict certain private sector jobs to only Bahrainis. 

The lawmakers stated that majority of the jobs in the private sector are going to expatriates while Bahrainis are struggling to get jobs. According to them, the existing initiatives to reduce unemployment among Bahrainis is not enough.    

The MPs pointed out the experience of Oman in implementing such a restriction. Oman has stopped issuing visa for expats for 87 jobs for the past two years. Information and Technology, Accounting and Finance, Marketing and Sales, Administration and Human Resources, Insurance, Information/Media Professions, Medical Professions, Airport Professions, Engineering Professions, Technical Professions are some of the segments affected in Oman.

Meanwhile, another proposal by a group of MPs aim at imposing fines, as high as BD20,000 on companies that are not giving priority to Bahrainis during recruitment. The proposal has been made by MP Ghazi Al Rahma alongside four other fellow lawmakers including Mohammed Al Abbasi, Ali Ishaqi, Ahmed Al Amer and Yousef Al Thawadi.

They aim to amend the labour law to add an article that states that all employer needs to give Bahrainis priority in the event of a job opening and failing to do so would result in fines.  The MPs stated that a fine of a minimum of BD5,000 and a maximum of BD20,000 must be imposed on violating companies. They added that renewal of work permits of violating companies should also come under scrutiny. In another development, MP Adel Al Asoomi has called for a ban on hiring of foreigners in the public sector for one year.

Mr Al Asoomi said that the proposal is aimed at empowering Bahrainis by providing them more job opportunities. He said that there is a need to increase the number of Bahrainis employed in the public sector. Earlier this year, members of parliament approved a an urgent proposal that could result in complete Bahrainisation of government occupations within four years. The proposal was presented during a parliament weekly session in March during which the Parliament and Shura Council Affairs Minister Ghanim Buainain stated that 85 per cent of public sector job were already occupied by Bahrainis.

The number of Bahrainis in the Kingdom reached 677,000 this year, constituting 45 per cent of the population, while there are 823,000 expatriates are living here (55pc of total population). The data reveals that the number of expatriates has been growing substantially with over 64,000 foreigners arrive last year alone. The number of Bahrainis rose only by 12,000 last year when compared to 2016 numbers.