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Bahrain campaign against union ban

Published: 11 December 2008
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Collective bargaining course at the federation





UNI's Noel Howell meets the Bahrain union federation





Jaffer Khalil Ebrahim at the new Carrefour in Bahrein





Abdulla Mohammed Hussain

 Unions in Bahrain have won new backing from the International Labour Organisation in their campaign to end the government’s ban on public service workers forming their own unions - a restriction that hits groups like Post Office employees.

“All public service employees (with the exception of the armed forces and police) should be able to establish organisations of their own choosing to further and defend their interests,” said the ILO’s Freedom of Association Committee last month.

The ILO has also urged the government to compensate Najjeyah Abdel Ghaffar, who is one of the top leaders of the Bahrain postal union that the government brands as an “illegal and unlawful entity”. She has been suspended without pay several times for her union activities.

“”One of the fundamental principles of freedom of association is that workers should enjoy adequate protection against all acts of anti-union discrimination in respect of their employment such as dismissal, demotion, transfer or other prejudicial measures,” said the ILO Committee in a recent ruling.



Bahrain allowed unions in a Labour Code introduced in 2002 after decades of suppression of unions and workers committees in a country where the first Gulf union (the petrol workers) was formed in 1938.

The trade union centre - the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions - was founded in 2004 and now has 76 affiliated unions. It became a UNI affiliate last month after a decision of the UNI World Executive.

But restrictions are not confined to forming unions in the public sector - Bahrain unions have a new campaign to challenge restrictions introduced in 2006 on the right to strike in sectors of the economy that include banking.

“We are witnessing a new surge against liberties and behind the (Bahrain) real estate boom there is poverty,” said the Federation’s Abdulla Mohammed Hussain who is also a deputy member of the workers’ team on the ILO Governing Body.

Getting Bahrain to sign up to ILO Convention 87 (freedom of association) is a key target. “It would make the situation very different - government workers would be free to establish and join unions and it would introduce international standards.”



The emergence of unions in the Gulf region means that UNI now has affiliates in Kuwait and Bahrain and has contacts with unions in Oman. The establishment of a UNI office in Tunis last year will help liaison with the Gulf.

The United Arab Emirates however this week rejected international calls to legalise unions, collective bargaining and political parties. It is under scrutiny by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva with proposals to broaden human rights in the UAE, including opening unions to migrant workers - who outnumber domestic workers there by about five to one.

In Bahrain migrant workers comprise more than half the workforce and are allowed to join unions. “Workers are workers, they are human beings,” said the Federation’s Jaffer Khalil Ebrahim. “They are coming here to work and they have rights.”

The wealth of the Gulf has also attracted multinational companies - with Carrefour just opening a 16,000 square metre supermarket in Bahrain’s new City Centre mall.