Garment workers seek redundancy packages
By MANDEEP SINGH
Gulf Daily News, Bahrain
UNION leaders are demanding redundancy packages for hundreds of Bahraini women made jobless by the closure of two garment factories.
Around 200 Bahrain women from the Gulf Garments factory in Ma’amir attended a meeting at the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) headquarters in Adliya last night.
Gulf Garments closed last week, resulting in 1,200 women, including 300 Bahrainis, losing their jobs.
French Garments, which is under the same management, is set to close down by the end of this month, putting 140 expatriates and 28 Bahraini women out of work.
The GFBTU is demanding that the management pay each Bahraini made redundant one month’s salary for every year worked, plus one extra month’s pay.
It is understood the company has paid Gulf Garment workers up to the day they worked, plus indemnity and other dues for expatriates.
GFBTU spokesman Mohammed Ali Maki said after the meeting that it had approached the Labour Ministry and the management on behalf of the Bahraini employees.
“We have asked the management to give an extra month’s salary to all of them, on top of month’s salary for every year they have put in,” he said.
Mr Al Maki said most of the employees have put in between 10 and 15 years of service.
“That money would help them tide over whatever financial burden they will suffer until they manage to find other jobs,” he said.
Mr Al Maki said the management had so far not responded to the demand, saying it needed more time.
“We will impress upon them, as well as the Labour Ministry, to take up the matter on an urgent basis,” he said.
Most of the workers are expatriates, said Mr Al Maki.
“While a majority are Sri Lankan, there are also some from Nepal, India and Bangladesh,” he said.
The Labour Ministry has designated a panel specifically to help find the redundant Bahraini workers similar jobs, or retrain them for other jobs.
