During his participation in the session of the House of Representatives 28 Feb 2023

01-03-2023

Minister of Labour: Government policies depend on providing job opportunities on an integrated system of balanced plans and procedures Minister of Labour: Our plans depend on supporting the growth of the private sector in generating job opportunities, which accounts for 70% of the national workforce compared to the public sector, which constitutes 30% Minister of Labour: Bahrain is making various efforts to unify education outputs with the needs of the labour market Minister of Labour: All the procedures carried out by the various work parties are documented in the system and all the procedures taken by the ministry appear in the job seeker's account Minister of Labour: Obliging various sectors and activities( without exception and in a varying manner) to adhere to Bahrainisation rates His Excellency Mr. Jameel bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan, Minister of Labour and Chairman of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) stressed that government policies depend on providing job opportunities on an integrated system of balanced plans and procedures. The plans are based on supporting the growth of the private sector in generating job opportunities, which accounts for 70% of the national workforce compared to the public sector, which constitutes 30%. The activity of the economy and the generation of decent job opportunities for citizens in the private sector depends primarily on the ability of the Kingdom of Bahrain to attract foreign investments, and this requires the openness of the Bahraini labor market and keeping pace with global changes, and that the regulatory environment be attractive from a legislative and regulatory point of view through the facilities granted. Bahrain is also making various efforts to align education outcomes with the needs of the labour market. This relies on a policy of stimulation and support for the private sector to generate suitable job opportunities by addressing any difficulties related to cost or skill, which makes Bahrainis desirable in the labour market. These initiatives being part of the economic recovery plan were able to employ 29,995 Bahrainis in 2022, which constitutes 149. 9% of the stated target of employing 20,000 Bahraini nationals annually. In addition, it proves that the Bahraini worker has proven his/her ability to compete because of his/her skill in the labour market, which led to the dependence of many establishments that voluntarily rely on national labour and achieve high Bahrainization rates that exceed the prescribed rates, which reached to 80-90% in some establishments. This came in response to HE the Minister of Labour to the parliamentary questions submitted by MPs:. Khaled Saleh Buanaq, Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, and Maryam Saleh Al-Dhaen, in the 12th regular session of the first session - the sixth legislative term, on Tuesday, at the headquarters of the House of Representatives. Humaidan pointed to the government's interest in developing training and education that contribute to the advancement of human resources. The minister reiterated that the formation of Bahrain Strategy for Education and Training it will be concerned with measuring modern advanced indicators for the development of higher education, public education and early education, focusing in the next phase on directing funding to programs targeted by the labour market, practical skills, simplification of procedures and the governance system. His Excellency also referred to the initiative to expand Bahrain Polytechnic College in the academic stages and the National Plan for Career Guidance. In addition, steps will be taken to intensifying cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the Higher Education Council and the University of Bahrain to ensure greater harmonisation between the outputs of university education and the needs of the labour market and focus on the required specializations. He also spoke about the existence of many initiatives needed to synchronise the outputs of education and training with the actual and future needs of the labour market. For instance, the "Employability Skills Platform" initiative, which is an electronic system that works to provide comprehensive and integrated data on the most important skills and jobs required by the labour market, to help in drawing up future policies for government institutions. Regarding candidacy for jobs, Humaidan stressed that the electronic system in force at the Ministry of Labor does not accept that the job seekerو or even the ministry employee nominates anyone to a job that violates the job requirements offered by the employer. He pointed out that the employer is the only one who shall determine the specialisation and qualification required for the job and that is by depositing the vacancy through the electronic system with all the data pertaining to the job: such as job title, salary, type of work and other matters. From then, the ministry checks the vacancy, and if it is approved, it is displayed in the e-Career Expo. When the job is included in the system, the job seekers will be presented with the opportunity to nominate themselves. In the event that the employer requests to organize group interviews with job seekers at the ministry’s building, the latter will make the required arrangements in this regard. All procedures carried out by the Ministry, the employer, and the job seeker are documented in the system. All the actions taken by the Ministry appear in the job seeker's account, and there are also opportunities for nominations in his account in the system, which enables the researcher to follow up on the results of nominations in real time. The Ministry's www. mlsd. gov. bh website provides all interested parties with the possibility to view the jobs offered and their suitability to the qualifications of job seekers. The Ministry welcomes the receipt and treatment of any case that the owners believe has been carried out with a mismatch between the qualification required by the employer for the job with the academic qualification of the job seeker for which he was nominated. This is done through the grievance system within the job seeker services on the Ministry's website. In addition, Humaidan confirmed that the data of the Ministry of Labour in employment is identical with the data of the Social Insurance Organization, through the use of a single system within the electronic operations system of the government. Moreso, the transactions of employment and insurance applications are processed in the same application submitted by the employer after signing the employment contract concluded under the supervision of the ministry. In this context, His Excellency pointed out that the Ministry of Labour completed 29,995 recruitment operations last year and worked to match them and link them to the database of the Social Insurance Organization. For the sake of greater reliability, the matching process has been documented in official letters between the two parties, and the employees are divided into two segments: 7,788 first-time employees (new entrants) who have completed their university or secondary studies and registered as job seekers for the first time, and 22,207 employees who have previously worked. He added that the Ministry of Labour and the Social Insurance Organization keep signed copies of employment contracts for all employment processes for Bahrainis in the private sector, where all employment contracts are audited before being approved. Humaidan pointed out that the figure indicating (5,731) employees that was previously circulated refers only to the segment of new entrants insured for the first time (and those continuing to be insured) until the end of the third quarter 2022, that is, until the end of September 2022. This is indicated by the title of the table from which the number was taken in the periodic bulletin for the third quarter 2022 issued by the Social Insurance Organization. He explained that the ministry approves the employment contracts of employees in the private sector, the level of wages and other working conditions according to qualification. The ministry also passes employment applications through the common electronic system to the Social Insurance Organization, which in turn verifies the application and does not overlap between work periods, approves the insurance application, calculates the deduction rates (insurance contribution), the amount of wages, and approves the name of the employer. Furthermore, the newly insured are identified for the first time by opening a new record for him, and those who have previously worked are modified according to the new job and the new employer. In light of this, data is transferred to other government entities through electronic linking to an identical and documented database that is also approved and audited by the Information & eGovernment Authority. Regarding the publication of the employment data, the Minister of Labour indicated that it discloses the list of the names of companies and the number of Bahrainis employed on the its website and the latest of which was, the publication of a list of 6,211 establishments, which employed 29,995 Bahrainis during the year 2022. The ministry has become accustomed to publishing the names of companies and institutions contributing to the employment of Bahrainis in appreciation of their provision of suitable job opportunities for citizens. As a token of gratitude, companies that employed the most Bahrainis in 2022 were honored last December, under the patronage of His Majesty the King. Similarly, the ministry conducts successive visits to companies who choose to employ nationals and meet with the new employees and listens to their observations and success stories. The ministry continually publishes employment photos and group photos of new recruits, especially those which reveal the companies' pride in national workers and their training fields and providing them with the necessary skills for promotion. In response to a question about the application of Bahrainisation standards, the minister indicated that different sectors and activities are obliged, without exception, to varying levels of Bahrainisation. Based on the degree of demand and desire of Bahrainis in the available professions and the presence of job seekers who are able and willing to work in these specialties in a particular sector or activity, it has been taken into account that the salaries in this activity are rewarding. The appropriateness of the environment and the possibility of moving up the career ladder with job security for the citizen are also borne in mind. The minister underlined that the percentage of Bahrainisation scheduled in some unattractive sectors reaches 5%, as in the construction and cleaning sectors. On the other hand, it has reached 50-60% in attractive sectors such as financial institutions, insurance companies, kindergartens, and nurseries; whilst these percentages are subject to continuous evaluation. A decision has been imposed that to obtain government tenders, it is required to adhere to the prescribed Bahrainisation rates, pointing out that they are applied automatically, and an additional parallel fee (BD500) is imposed on each work permit for foreign workers. However, in the event that the establishment does not comply with the prescribed Bahrainisation rate in addition to the regular fee of BD200, the monthly fee of BD10 per month and the health insurance fee of BD144 at a total cost of (BD1084). In the matter of the completion rates of the National Labour Market Plan, the Minister of Labour explained that since the issuance of Resolution No. (58) of 2021 and approving the National Labour Market Plan, the ministry has coordinated with the Labour Market Regulatory Authority to follow up on all government agencies concerned with implementing the initiatives contained in the plan. Clearly, 74% of the initiatives approved in the plan have been implemented under the three axes targeted in the current national plan. Pursuant to the issuance of Decree No. (21) of 2021 for amending some provisions of Law No. (19) of 2006 regarding the regulation of the labour market, the Ministry of Labour was tasked with preparing the national plan for regulating the labour market. Accordingly, the ministry is coordinating with the concerned authorities to form a technical team to prepare the next draft of the 2023-2026 to be later approved by the Council of Ministers and published in the Official Gazette. HE the Minister referred to the efforts exerted to make the citizen the first choice when hiring through many incentives. Noteworthily of these endeavours is its support to the cost of employing national labour by providing wage subsidy programs that increase the level of incentives for employers. In general, the Bahraini workers receive a subsidy of up to 70% for the first year, 50% for the second year and 30% for the last year, including all national workers with all qualifications. Several initiatives have also recently been launched to boost the employment of university job seekers in better jobs. Amongst the most important of these initiatives is the provision of a special program to support the employment of engineers for a period of 5 years in order to obtain a license to practice the profession in accordance with the requirements of the Council for the Practice of Engineering Professions, where the ceiling of the subsidy has been raised to reach BD1000. A special support program for law graduates has also been introduced, which provides training opportunities with licensed law firms, and trainees are granted a bonus of BD300 per month for two years, depending on the period required to pass the period of a lawyer in training and in preparation for obtaining a law license. In addition to subsidising the recruitment fees of new doctors and dentists for a period of 3 years and raising the salary ceiling for working doctors and dentists up to a maximum of BD1000 and a minimum of BD800. Meanwhile, incentives have been provided to hospitals and medical centres in the private sector that achieve a Bahrainisation rate equal to 25% of doctors, where the facility will receive 10% per month of the cost of Bahraini doctors' salaries in the first year, 20% in the second year and 30% in the third year. A special program has been introduced to improve the wages of Bahraini doctors who are pre-employed in the private sector, and Tamkeen shall bear the salary increase of more than BD600 by BD200 for a year. The ministry has intensified its efforts to accelerate the integration of university students into the labour market. These efforts were able to raise the percentage of university employment in 2022 to reach 31% of the total recruitment operations compared to 23% in 2021. In 2022, 9,427 university students were employed, compared to 6,261 in 2021, and initiatives to facilitate the integration of women into the labour market contributed to raising the percentage of female employment to 41% of the total employment processes in 2022. This is illustrated in the introduction of remote work and part-time work for females, their inclusion in wage subsidy programs, labour laws and social insurance, and increased marketing to employers to obtain vacancies suitable for females, especially university women. With reference to the existence of a comprehensive field survey of the local market on the foreign workforce, including technicians and support workers specialised in medium-return works, Humaidan stated that the Labour Market Regulatory Authority has an updated database of all foreign workers, whether related to work permits or administrative and digital information related to other relevant authorities. He pointed out that the professional levels have been completed and the skill level has been measured for the issuance of professional licenses: for the purpose of regulating professions in the labour market and placing them within professional standards. Additionally, work is underway to activate the draft professional licenses, which are issued by the Ministry of Labour and related to professions for which, there is no government regulatory body, in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 17 of 2007 on vocational training.