Sandeep Singh Grewal
Staff Reporter
High cost of living, no minimum wage as well as discrimination against women in employment and wages were some of the issues highlighted in a report released by the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).
The report said that 48 per cent of the workforce in the government sector receives only BD200 after the recent increments. On the other hand, about 18,000 Bahrainis working in private sector receive less than BD200.
“More than 162,000 of Bahrainis and non-Bahrainis earn less than BD99. Most of the Bahrainis work in the private sector, where wages are less than BD40. There has been 11-fold increase in the salaries of the government employees in senior and middle level positions,” said Nabeel Rajab, the Vice President of the now defunct centre.
Sandeep Singh Grewal
Staff Reporter
High cost of living, no minimum wage as well as discrimination against women in employment and wages were some of the issues highlighted in a report released by the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).
The report said that 48 per cent of the workforce in the government sector receives only BD200 after the recent increments. On the other hand, about 18,000 Bahrainis working in private sector receive less than BD200.
“More than 162,000 of Bahrainis and non-Bahrainis earn less than BD99. Most of the Bahrainis work in the private sector, where wages are less than BD40. There has been 11-fold increase in the salaries of the government employees in senior and middle level positions,” said Nabeel Rajab, the Vice President of the now defunct centre.
Attributing the General Organisation for Social Insurance (Gosi), the report stressed that the total number of the workforce in the private sector last year was 313,039 and the average wage in the private sector was BD214.
The monthly salary for Bahraini workers was BD377 while the average salary received by non-Bahrainis was BD170, a difference of BD207 per month.
The report was prepared on the data collected through newspapers, which were analysed and computed for the report. “We have collected reports and speeches by ministers on these issues and compiled them,” Rajab said.
Discrimination against women in employment and wages in public and private sector was highlighted in the report by the centre.
It stated that the average wage preference of men over women was BD63 in government and BD147 in the private sector.
The report mentioned that in the public sector, average monthly salary of Bahraini women was BD643 compared to BD706 for their male counterparts. As for the private sector, Bahraini females received average monthly salary of BD307 compared to BD454 for men.
“The ratio of female employment in the Public Sector last year was 44 per cent, which amounts to 15,340 of the total jobs where Bahrainis are employed. The number excludes the Bahrain Defence Forces and the Ministry of Interior.
The number of Bahraini women insured in the private sector according to Gosi was 17,701, which constitutes about 27 per cent of total employment in the private sector,” Rajab said.
However, the report warns that Bahraini families face difficulties to provide minimum needs for less than BD400 to BD500 per month considering the high cost of living. It further states that the ratio of foreign workers in the public sector is 10 per cent while in private sector it has sharply gone up to 80 per cent in 2006.
The report also touched upon issues such as the prohibition by the government for setting up of unions in the government sector, pensions in the private sector and the problems faced by kindergarten teachers.