Bahrain is proposing a new bill aimed at regulating the recruitment of domestic workers, including capping recruitment fees and workers’ salaries. According to recent local media reports, Bahraini member of parliament Adel bin Abdul Rahman Al Asoumi has tabled a proposal to cap prices and outline recruiters’ contract terms and liabilities in cases of domestic worker absconding.
The bill also requires Bahrain to enter into labour agreements with sending countries “to ensure that recruitment fees and salaries are within specified limits.”
According to the proposed bill, recruitment fees for domestic workers must not exceed BD550 (US$1,458) and the monthly salary of domestic workers must not exceed BD120 (US$320), with an annual increase of BD2 (US$5.31). Additionally, recruitment agencies will be held liable if a domestic worker “absconds”. This includes covering the cost of deportation tickets and compensating employers.
If passed, Bahrain would be the first country to impose a maximum wage without stipulating a minimum wage. The proposed maximum wage is lower than the $400 minimum wage required by the Philippine Embassy’s standard contract for Filipino domestic workers in Bahrain. It is unclear how the new law, if implemented, will affect existing domestic worker contracts that pay higher wages.
The published details of the law are silent on protecting the rights of domestic workers, focusing only on the needs of employers. Bahrain has one of the weakest protections for domestic workers among Gulf countries, with no specific legislation on domestic workers and domestic workers excluded from most labour law protections.
With the exception of Qatar and Kuwait, there is no minimum wage for domestic workers in the Gulf countries. Some embassies, such as the Philippines, will only approve contracts for nationals that meet their own country’s minimum wage, but enforcement is solely the responsibility of the embassy.
In recent years, Gulf countries have stepped up efforts to reduce the cost of hiring domestic workers for their nationals. This typically involves increasing the supply of labor and capping recruitment fees, but without imposing maximum wage caps for domestic workers, who are already among the lowest-paid workers in the region.
