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Workers follow up their cases at embassy event
Bonny Mascarenhas
Contributor
For the Indian community the open day organised by the embassy has been a platform to air their grievances. Yesterday was no different. The consular hall was filled to capacity with workers coming to check the status of their last complaints and others to file cases and yet others just to help.
“At the beginning there used to be very few people approaching the embassy with cases of wrongdoing against them by their employers. Now the number has increased and this is due to people believing that the embassy will help them.” said M. Mansoor, a member of Indian Community Services.
http://www.bahraintribune.com/PrintPage.asp
Workers follow up their cases at embassy event
Bonny Mascarenhas
Contributor
For the Indian community the open day organised by the embassy has been a platform to air their grievances. Yesterday was no different. The consular hall was filled to capacity with workers coming to check the status of their last complaints and others to file cases and yet others just to help.
“At the beginning there used to be very few people approaching the embassy with cases of wrongdoing against them by their employers. Now the number has increased and this is due to people believing that the embassy will help them.” said M. Mansoor, a member of Indian Community Services.
Rasheed Karkidamkunnan had come to follow up on the complaint he had lodged at the last open house. His employer has not paid the BD1667 despite court order to pay the worker’s dues as well as court fees in December 2005.
When the employer refused to pay the amount, the court ordered the sale of company assets to recover Rasheed’s wages. “There was nothing in the office or on the premises of the employer’s furniture warehouse that would recover the amount,” said Rasheed. “They had agreed to employ me after my old sponsor informed me that he was unable to renew my visa. I worked there for 20 months but they did not pay me and did not change my visa. I approached my old sponsor and he helped me get my passport back and file a case against the new employer,” he said.
Rasheed is without a job and has been living on friends’ support. He has not been to India since he arrived in Bahrain in January 1999. He has been regularly reporting his status to the court and approached the embassy during the open house last month. “The embassy has assured me that it will look into the matter,” Rasheed said.
“If the court or the embassy is unable to get his settlement from the sponsor, who else can he turn to?” asked Rasheed’s friend who wished not to be identified. A source told the Tribune that there are three-four cases of r unpaid wages against the same sponsor.
Housemaid Manju J. (name changed) alleged ill-treatment by her sponsor. She attended the open house with her husband who works as a cook in a house on the same street.
Manju told the Tribune that her sponsor used to beat her up and had not paid her salary. She had come to Bahrain to join her husband and to work so that the couple could send enough money to their three children who are living with their grandparents in India.
She was advised to visit the labour section of the embassy on Monday. “We are doing our best to solve as many problems as we can, within our scope,” Ambassador Balkrishna Shetty told the Tribune. “The success of every case will strengthen our resolve and deter others from taking advantage of the less fortunate in our society.”