Bahrain Labor
Worker practicing traditional craft of weaving
Courtesy Embassy of Bahrain, Washington
Members of an oil-drilling rig at work
Courtesy Embassy of Bahrain, Washington
Bahrain's total labor force was estimated at 160,000 in
1992.
Foreign workers constituted about 55 percent of the labor
force,
a slight decline from the 58 percent they had constituted
in
1981. Foreign participation in the labor force increased
dramatically after 1971, when such workers had constituted
37
percent of the economically active population. The
composition of
the foreign work force also has changed significantly.
During the
1960s, more than one-half of all foreign workers came from
Oman
and Iran. Since the late 1970s, one-half of all foreign
workers
have come from South Asia, predominantly from India and
Pakistan
but also from Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and
Thailand. South Asian workers constituted 13 percent of
the total
population in 1990 and Iranians, 6 percent. Less than 10
percent
of foreign workers come from other Arab countries.
Egyptians,
about one-half of whom teach in Bahrain's public schools,
constitute the largest group of foreign Arabs, followed by
Palestinians, most of whom hold Jordanian passports, and
Lebanese. Arabs are more likely than Asians to be
accompanied by
dependents.
The government requires all foreign workers to possess
valid
residence and work permits. Although work permits are
renewable
after the expiration of the original contract period,
authorities
do not encourage long-term residency of foreign nationals.
Most
of the foreign workers, who are unskilled and semiskilled
laborers, have few incentives to live in Bahrain
permanently
because their families generally remain in their native
countries. These workers consequently remit a considerable
portion of their employment income to their families in
their
countries of origin.
As the proportion of citizens declined to less than
one-half
the labor force, government planners drew up specific
programs
and laws designed to replace foreign workers with Bahraini
nationals. Within the private sector, which provides jobs
for
more than two-thirds of all foreign nationals, employers
have the
option of designing their own special courses for training
citizens or providing funds to finance government-operated
training courses. Companies pay a special levy, equal to 4
percent of the salary of every employed foreigner but only
equal
to 2 percent for every local employee. At the completion
of a
foreign worker's contract, officials of the Ministry of
Labor and
Social Affairs urge the hiring company to take on more
nationals.
Efforts to make employment indigenous encourage the
participation of women in the labor force. Women, who
constituted
about 15 percent of all employees in the early 1990s, work
outside the home in far greater numbers in Bahrain than in
any
other state of the Arabian Peninsula. The most dramatic
rise in
female employment occurred during the decade of the 1970s.
Between 1971 and 1981, the proportion of women in the
labor force
increased from 3.8 to 13.3 percent. Bahraini women
predominate in
such traditionally female occupations as teaching and
nursing,
but, since the early 1980s, increasing numbers of women
have been
employed in administration, banking, commerce, finance,
engineering, and the civil service. Despite the trend
toward
greater female participation in the work force, about 82
percent
of Bahraini women do not work outside the home. The
overwhelming
majority of working women tend to be single women who work
for
two to five years after completing secondary school or
university
and before marriage.
In an effort to encourage continued participation of
women in
the labor force after marriage, the government has enacted
labor
legislation favorable to working mothers. For example, all
employers are required to grant new mothers forty-five
days of
full-pay maternity leave plus fifteen days at half-pay. In
addition, employers are obligated to provide nursing
periods for
new mothers. The law also forbids discrimination against
working
mothers.
Data as of January 1993
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