Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait follows the hysteric trend of unfair dismissals and sectarian discrimination in employment within the

5 October 2011

Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its concern regarding the policy of discrimination in employment and unfair dismissals, which has taken place in the banking sector in Bahrain. This was accompanied with the Bahraini authorities’ suppression of peaceful pro-democracy protests and gatherings, which was followed by a declaration of the emergency law which they coined as the state of National Safety on March 15, 2011.

The banking sector in Bahrain witnessed 44 cases of employee dismissals in more than one banking institution according to statistics from the Bahrain General Federation of Trade Unions. The 44 cases include: 16 employees from Arab Investment Company, 7 employees from Arcapita Bank, 4 employees from Bahrain Islamic Bank, 3 staff members from National Bank of Bahrain, two staff members from Ithmaar Bank, and one employee from each of the Arab Company for Banking, Standard Chartered Bank, Habib Bank and Mashreq Bank.

According to the cases documented by Bahrain Center for Human Rights, it was recorded that most of the employees and staff in the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait were dismissed on a sectarian and political basis. In the period from the date of the declaration of a state of emergency until mid-September 2011, the bank management dismissed 8 staff members for political reasons. It employed approximately 29 staff, of which only 4% were Shiaa.

Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait is involved with several government agencies and individuals. The social insurance and pension fund in Bahrain both own 32% of the shares of the Bank, and these two bodies are governmental institutions in Bahrain. Ithmaar Bank comes second in terms of ownership, where it owns 25% of the shares while the rest of the shares are distributed among Bahraini and Kuwaiti investors [1]. This structure strengthened the government’s influence on the Bank’s policies and employment of senior management positions. Among 14 positions in the senior Executive, there are only 3 of which are Shiaa [2]. However after the suppression of demonstrations calling for democracy and the declaration of the Emergency Law, the discriminatory policy of the bank was extended to the other levels on a sectarian and political basis.

Background
Starting on 14 February 2011, organized protests and sit-ins took place in Bahrain demanding more democracy with inspiration from the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt in what was known as the Arab Spring. However, the authorities in Bahrain dealt violently with these protests and sit-ins. They attacked peaceful protestors in the Pearl Roundabout and around the streets of Bahrain. The authorities then declared a state of National Safety (state of emergency) on 15th of March, and the army was put on the streets. They called the Peninsula Shield Force which mostly consists of Saudis to intervene and help impose the state of emergency. That was followed by the dissemination of security and military forces in all areas and villages and the setting up of checkpoints in many parts of Bahrain. As a result of the attacks by the security and military forces, more than 40 people died up to the present time.

Bahrain General Federation of Trade Unions called for two general strikes to protest against the attacks on protesters and severe violations of human rights. The first strike was on February 20, lasting one day and was stopped after the army withdrew from the Pearl roundabout. The second was on March 13 in solidarity with the protestors who were suppressed violently in the Pearl roundabout and areas adjacent to the Bahrain Financial Harbor, and because of fear for the safety of workers after being beaten and arrested at checkpoints that had spread in various areas. However, Bahrain General Federation of Trade Unions decided to terminate the general strike on March 22 after the government provided guarantees to the Union not to harass workers in places of work and to reduce the number of checkpoints that were subjecting people to insults and assaulting them with beatings and arrests.

However the authorities followed with a sectarian campaign of revenge against all those who participated or supported the protests, especially the working class consisting of workers, engineers, doctors, nurses, teachers, athletes, journalists, bankers and many others. According to Bahrain General Federation of Trade Unions, the total number of dismissed employees in the public and private sectors, reached to 2724 until September 27 2011. The actual number of dismissed people from the work is however unknown due to the fact that these statistics only include workers who took the initiative to register with Bahrain General Federation of Trade Unions [3], all of whom were dismissed a sectarian and political basis. A small number of employees have been retuned to their jobs in the recent period, but the number is unknown due to lack of reliable statistics.

Arbitrary dismissals on a political basis for some of the Bank employees after the suppression of the democracy movement and the declaration of a state of emergency
In the context of the unfair dismissal of thousands of employees in Bahrain, the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait dismissed eight staff members after the suppression of demonstrations demanding democracy. Bahrain Center for Human Rights investigated about the dismissals that took place in the bank and found that the Bank’s management conducted an internal investigation with these employees focused on their participation in the pro-democracy protests and sit-ins. The bank also investigated on the activities of some staff members in social networking websites like Facebook. They printed pictures attributed to some employees during their participation in some of the protests. In other cases they showed the employees printed pages from the emoloyees’ personal Facebook accounts with posts in support of the pro-democracy movement or in opposition to the government’s policies [4]. This Committee is similar to dozens of committees set up in institutions, government ministries and NGOs, after comments from senior officials in the government about the protesters, where they were coined by official media as traitors. Those committees work on a sectarian basis, investigating with employees about their lives, and religious and political affiliation. Bahrain Center for Human Rights has written detailed reports about the unfair dismissal of hundreds of staff in the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) [5], Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) [6], and Gulf Air [7].

In one of the cases investigated in the bank, the employee submitted medical reports to prove that he had medical leave due to suffering from Intervertebral Disc Prolapse. The employee attended the investigation with bandages on his neck by the advice of his physician. But he was dismissed after the investigators displayed a picture attributed to him in one of the protests in which covered himself with the flag of Bahrain and raised the victory sign.

BCHR has documented one case, where the Bank justified the dismissal of the employee in accordance with Article 113 of the Bahrain Labour Law without mentioning the offense precisely. This is because Article 113 of the Bahrain Labour Law sets 9 violations that allow the employer to dismiss a worker without remuneration, notification or compensation. Some of these offenses require certain requirements from the employer before giving him the right to dismiss the worker [8].

Bahrain Center for Human Rights observed the Bank’s administrative investigations with a number of its employees followed by recalling them to a police station for investigation [9]. What raises our concern is that according to our observation in most cases the employees would be recalled to a police station following administrative investigations with the Bank. This makes us suspicious towards the actions of the bank as it might informed the Ministry of Interior about the participation of some of its staff in the protests in support of democracy in Bahrain. BCHR documented identical testimonies indicating that the first question asked in the police station was about the employee’s salary. After the employee disclosed his salary, the investigators at the police station insult the employee for going to the roundabout and attending rallies in spite of receiving a relatively high salary. BCHR has documented cases of beatings and degrading treatment for most of the staff in police stations in No’aim and Nabih Saleh.

The bank’s management failed to maintain a safe working environment to prevent relations between station to get affected. The Bank’s management allowed organized weekly pro-government parties throughout April and May in the main hall in its headquarters, with the participation of the executive management of the bank. It forced all employees to attend, which provoked a large number of them. The management would spread pictures of the Prime Minister intensively in each office. They also ignored a number of employees who were rejoicing at the news of the dismissal of two staff members.

Discrimination in Employment
During the period from late March until mid-September 2011, the bank employed approximately 29 new Bahraini staff, only of one whom belonged to a specific religious sector (Shiaa) which the government has made synonymous to the opposition [10]. Bahrain Center for Human Rights got testimonies that confirm that the human resources department in the Bank in that period did not make any contact to request an interview with applicants who are regarded by the authority as opposition, except in limited cases or for low position jobs.

These procedures by the bank management violate the rights guaranteed by the Bahraini Constitution, domestic laws and international conventions, as the first article of the ILO Convention No. 111 concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation provides non-discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, political opinion, national origin, social origin, which lead to nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment [11]. They also violated many of the terms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights believes that the current Bank’s policy is part of a systematic policy exercised by the authorities in Bahrain in most ministries, companies and institutions by narrowing a large segment of citizens who are regarded by the authority as opposition the regime because of their religious affiliation. That policy increased severely after the crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests and gatherings in Bahrain and the declaration of a state of emergency in March 15, 2011. Bahrain Center for Human Rights did two studies in 2003 and 2010 which illustrates the amount of the discrimination conducted by the authorities in Bahrain against the citizens [12].

Therefore the Bahrain Center for Human rights demands:
1. The return of all dismissed bank employees immediately while providing physical and moral compensation for the damages done, as well as all the trade unionists and workers dismissed from different work sectors, which according to the statistics of Bahrain General Federation of Trade Unions exceed 2700 workers
2. Stop the policy of discrimination in the employment policy by the Management of Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, which is in violation of ILO Convention No. 111 concerning discrimination in employment
3. Centers of international rating like Standards & Poor’s and Moody’s and Fitch to re-evaluate the bank, and the performance of the Central Bank of Bahrain for their failure to protect employees and maintain a productive work environment to ensure stable growth and sustainablity in the long run
4. Urge the Government of Bahrain to ratify the following international conventions; International Convention No. 87 of 1948 concerning Freedom of Association and Convention No. 98 for the year 1949 on collective bargaining
5. The U.S. government to stop the free trade agreement with the Government of Bahrain if the latter didn’t stop the explicit violations of the terms relating to the guarantee of labor rights and trade union rights in chapter (15), requiring the two parties to respect international labor standards