Dismissal of hundreds of employees in transport sector in Bahrain, in violation of local law and international conventions

18 June 2011
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its grave concern due to a campaign of violations of labor rights and trade union rights against workers and trade unionists in the transport sector, which is part of a campaign against the labor sector and trade unions in Bahrain, where 1890 persons total were retrenched in the public and private sectors (as registered in the lists of the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions GFBTU) up until June 15, 2011, including 8 members of the Secretariat and 44 union members. While the actual number of dismissed from jobs is unknown for the fact that these statistics only include laid-off workers who took the initiative to register with the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions.

18 June 2011
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its grave concern due to a campaign of violations of labor rights and trade union rights against workers and trade unionists in the transport sector, which is part of a campaign against the labor sector and trade unions in Bahrain, where 1890 persons total were retrenched in the public and private sectors (as registered in the lists of the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions GFBTU) up until June 15, 2011, including 8 members of the Secretariat and 44 union members. While the actual number of dismissed from jobs is unknown for the fact that these statistics only include laid-off workers who took the initiative to register with the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions.

Workers and trade unionists in the transport sector are subject to a broad campaign of dismissal, including up to date 383 workers and employees, includes 7 unionists and 28 women, as registered in the lists of the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions.

Chief Executive of Gulf Air a wholly owned subsidiary of the Government of Bahrain – said in a statement to the press regarding the sacking of more than 200 employees, and attributed it happened, “for various reasons but the predominant cause is the unjustified absenteeism ” [1], and this number represents approximately 9% of the total Bahraini employees in the company [2], and among the dismissed head of the union workers, Gulf Air Habib Alnabol and two other members of the Board of Directors of the Union, also 24 woman who registered their names with the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions. The Gulf Air is in the third place in terms of total number of employees laid off after the company Alba and Bapco. Moreover, it’s ranked in the second place in terms of number of Female employees that have been dismissed.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights received dozens of statements from the staff of Gulf Air who were sacked from work, which confirmed most of the statements that they had been dismissed without an administrative investigation with them, and that dismissal took place after contacting the employee and requesting him to come immediately to the Human Resources Department, where a termination letter[3 ] is delivered to him and he is told that he has the right to appeal within three days.

In few cases there have been investigation with some of the staff, questions have been focused on the causes of absenteeism in the work during the strike also during the deterioration in security conditions, as well as questions about the extent of their participation in peaceful demonstrations for democracy and political rights that took place in February and March 2011, also about their belief if the regime in Bahrain must be changed.

A majority of the employees who have reported their cases to Bahrain Center for Human Rights have applied for a leave and approval from their respective directors, based on guidance issued by the Chief Executive Officer of the Company on 15 March, where he told them that the safety and security of the employee represent a key priority for the president of the company, and, if they feel threatened, absent employee will need to address that to their direct supervisor, and in case of inability to come to work the days will be logged as annual leave days by the Human Resources department[4].

A number of staff state that on March 28, 2011 there was a raid on the building of Gulf Head Quarter near Bahrain International Airport by the security forces, these forces searched the computers and phones of a large number of staff and conduct investigations in front of the sight of the staff, also they arrested some of the staff from the work place itself. Moreover, they had set up a checkpoint in front of the only exit of the company and all employees were subject to inspection. These raids were repeated more than once in the days subsequent to a limited extent to some of the targeted employees.

In a new development number of dismissed workers were forced by Gulf Air in order to return them to their jobs to sign a document in which the employee is committed to comprehensive and complete waiver of the complaint submitted to the Ministry of Labour against the company, and pledging not to practice political action with word or action, without limiting that to the workplace, which is a violation of the worker’s freedom expression and personal opinion, in addition the document included a final warning letter to the employee [5].

The same thing was in other companies (Maersk) and (IBM Terminals) who are also running the Bahrain Khalifa Port , where the company issued the decisions of the dismissal of 140 employees, who have registered in the lists of the GFBTU. Moreover, the workers in Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) were subjected to the termination campaign with at least 62 employees, including two women, as well as a trade union leader and coordinator of the transport sector unions in Bahrain with the International Transport Workers’ Federation Youssef Al Khaja.

Trade union of BAS went through further harassment , including the cut off communication lines that were provided by the company at the headquarters of the union, and suspending the transfer of employee contributions in the union to the account of the union without giving any reasons, despite a prior agreement in this regard, as well as the stop of all periodic meetings with the management, which leads to a disruption in workers’ issues and interests.

Dismissal processes of BAS are mostly without investigation, as reported by a number of staff, some of the dismissed workers were on high efficiency and dedication to work.

The list of dismissed workers in the transport sector also include (11) at Bahrain Limo Company [taxi services], and (8) in the Bahrain Airport Company which is fully by the Bahraini government, (3) in Bahrain Airline (Budget Airline), and a worker in CARS (Public Bus services), and all these numbers as registered in the GFBTU, while actual numbers are believed to be greater than these.

7 unionists in unions of transport sector were dismissed, including the President and 2 members of the Board of Directors of Gulf Air, President and members of the Board of Directors Air hosts Union, Chairman of the Union of the Bahrain Airport Services (BAS), coordinator of the trade unions of transport sector in Bahrain with the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights believes that the dismissal of staff in this vital sector comes in the context of the continuation of the Bahraini authorities to take arbitrary measures and sanctions against citizens who it believes their participation or support for the peaceful protest movement in the months of February and March.

The Bahrain Government dealt with brutal force with the protest and violently killed dozens, especially after the army took control of the streets, and it called in troops of Saudi Arabia and UAE to participate in the suppression of peaceful demonstrators, after the declaration of martial law on 15 March 2011, all segments of the community has been targeted including leaders of the opposition, rights activists , doctors, engineers, teachers, journalists, athletes, students, and trade unionists, men and women and other sectors of the community and civil society institutions, including the workers.

Despite the condemnation of many labor organizations in the world such as the ILO [6] which its delegation visited Bahrain at the end of the month of April, the International Federation of Trade Union of Workers (ITUC) [7], also the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organizations [8] (AFL-CIO) to stand up for workers and against the violations of their rights against the forces of Bahrain regime, but the Authority continued the arbitrary sacking processes.

This arbitrary action by the departments of these companies violate the rights guaranteed by the Bahraini Constitution and domestic laws and international conventions, as the punishment of the staff on their views and their political activities. and their sect affiliation which is an abuse of ILO Convention No. 111 concerning discrimination in employment and occupation [9], as well as abuse for many of the terms of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.

On the other hand they have violated the dismissal procedures as well as Article 113-4 of the Bahrain Labour Law of 1976 which obliges the company to send a written warning to the worker after five days of absence or after ten days of the absence of non-connected and this is what the company does not comply.
Bahrain Center for Human Rights noted similarity in the procedures of employees dismissal in a lot of workplaces in Bahrain, where the center monitored earlier the dismissal processes in the Bahrain Petroleum (BAPCO) [10] and Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) [11], where they initially sacked a large group of workers without conducting any administrative investigation, after which the companies conduct the administrative investigation of a number of other workers and the procedures and the quality of the questions addressed to workers are similar and based on the dimension of political and personal level for the employee, and did not adhere to international conventions and domestic laws and internal regulations, and this confirms the suspicions of the directives of Authorities in Bahrain to the management of these companies to arbitrary dismiss large numbers of workers in retaliation for their political and religious beliefs.

Based on the above, below is a summary of the violations:

1 – Discrimination against trade unionists and workers as a result of their political and religious beliefs, in violation of Convention No. (111) issued by the International Labour Organization concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation.
2 – Violation of Article (110) repeated of the labor law in the private sector which provides for the inadmissibility of sacking of trade unionists for exercising their trade union rights and activities.
3 – Inviolability of trade union headquarters, where the Committee of trade union freedoms sees any threat to the trade union headquarters as a Cause creating a climate of panic that is very harmful to exercise trade union activities. [12].
4 – The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which includes the two conventions (98) on the Right to Organize and Collective Negotiation, Convention No. (87) concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, and which emphasize the need to provide state guarantees for the conduct of trade union duties without any pressure, noting that Bahrain has signed an agreement in March 2010 with the ILO on the Decent Work Agenda, which emphasizes the need to apply the basic principles at work [13].

Based on the above, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands the following:

1 – Stop the unfair dismissal of all workers, employees and trade unionists, including workers in the transport sector, and return them to their works.
2 – Form an independent committee to investigate the procedures of the dismissals to see if it has any political or sectarian motives.
3 – Enable the unions to exercise their roles defending workers’ rights amid respect for the principles of triple-representation.
4 – Bahrain urged to commit to the provisions of Convention No. (111) concerning Discrimination.
5 – Bahrain urged to ratify Convention No. (98) on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, Convention No. (87) Concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize.
6 – Demand the U.S. Government to stop the free trade agreement with Bahrain unless they back down for violating the terms of the explicit guarantee of labor rights and trade union rights contained in chapter (15) and required by the two parties to respect international labor standards.



[1]http://www.alwasatnews.com/3186/news/read/563331/1.html
[2]http://www.alayam.com/Articles.aspx?aid=57212
http://www.alwasatnews.com/2800/news/read/415486/1.html
[3]Copy of the dismissal letter
[4]CEO email to the employees on 15 March
[5]Gulf Air settlement contract /pledge
[6]http://www.ilo.org/global/abo..
[7]http://www.ituc-csi.org/bahrain.html
[8]http://www.aflcio.org/issu..
[9]http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C111
[10]www.bahrainrights.org/ar/node/4086
[11]bahrainrights.org/ar/node/4149
[12]Report No. {(261) issues 1129.1298, 1344.1422, 1454, paragraph 48 g}
[13]http://www.ilo.org/pu..