Minimum wage proposed for Indian workers in Bahrain

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Monthly minimum wage of Bahrain Dinar (BD) 100 (Rs 10,481)

Feburary 29, 2008

The Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry (MOIA) which organised a meeting of the heads of Indian missions in the Gulf region, has proposed a minimum monthly wage of Bahrain Dinar (BD) 100 (Rs 10,481) for all new employment contracts from March 1 for unskilled Indian workers. The contract must be signed by the Indian Embassy before any new worker leaves India for Bahrain. The unskilled workers are also entitled to free transport and accommodation under the Bahrain's laws.

At present, there are about 275,000 Indians working on contract basis in the country's booming construction industry. The going rate for unskilled workers is 60 to 75 BDs and the employers are likely to hire workers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan rather than from India if they have to pay the hire rate. Enforcing the new minimum wage can worsen the prospects of hiring of Indian workers. Due to a dispute with India over labor contract rules, Kuwaiti government has also stopped giving visa for Indian workers since December 2007.

Gulf nations are however having an economic boom and there is heavy demand for construction workers. An Indian businessman, Ravi Pillai, managing director of the Nasser S Al-Hajri Corporation (NSHC) which has presence in Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, recently announced the hiring of 20,000 employees from India of which 5,000 will be engineers. The $2.5bn company already has 25,000 Indians out of 35,000 on their payroll. Pillai received Pravasi Bhartiya Saman from the president of India last January.

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