Bahrain’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority’s (LMRA) new Complaints and Protection Unit will soon provide administrative assistance to foreign workers in filing and following up on labour cases online.
The LMRA on Thursday (October 23) signed memorandums of understanding with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Islamic Religion and Ministry of Foundations to provide technical assistance on litigation response.
Earlier this year, the LMRA launched a new unit to help migrant workers compile relevant documents and submit them electronically to the Labor Court. As we noted in our previous report, this new unit could help reduce barriers to filing initial labor complaints. However, workers are still responsible for following up their own cases in the Labor Court, a difficult task for many low-income workers who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
However, since the COVID-19 crisis, labor courts have moved online, making it increasingly difficult for many workers to attend hearings and learn the outcome of their cases. Workers can only track their cases in court via an “e-key” on the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments’ website, or through a designated lawyer with power of attorney.
Khamis*, a Kenyan worker who recently sued his employer for unpaid wages and unfair dismissal, explained to Migrant-Rights.org the challenges he faced in tracking his case online:
“I took them to court, but because of COVID, it was all done online. There were some challenges I faced. I couldn’t access the online services. [court case] If you don’t have the E key, you need the E key. The second problem is that the website is only in Arabic. The third problem is that you need to know what to select, which parts of the form to fill and which parts not to fill if you want to file a lawsuit in court. Also, you are not allowed to physically go to the court, and you don’t know the exact number to call the court about your lawsuit.”
Khamis told MR he had to ask for help from Bahraini friends to translate the online forms and mobile texts he received from the Ministry of Justice about his case. He eventually sought help from a migrant community organization, which assigned him a lawyer to help with his case.
Khamis was one of the few exceptions: many workers were unable to pursue their cases due to lack of access to support and information and knowledge on how to navigate online court proceedings, resulting in some losing their cases.
A group of Bangladeshi construction workers who sued their employers for unpaid wages told MR:
“We received a text message in Arabic from the court instructing us to attend a hearing on a certain date, but nothing else. When we went to court in June, security guards shouted at us, telling us why we had come to court and that now everything has to be done online. But we didn’t know anything. We don’t know what is happening with our case.”
(Lawsuit against xxx regarding a labor dispute hearing on 16 June 2020). An example of an Arabic text message from the Ministry of Justice regarding a court hearing that many workers would not understand.
According to lawyers MR spoke to, the complexities arising from the online system and the fact that the LMRA only assists in registering initial cases with the Ministry of Justice but does not file responses or follow up on cases have led to some workers not claiming for unpaid wages or compensation.
According to the LMRA, with the new memorandum and system in place, workers will now receive a case number and be able to learn about court dates and trial outcomes through qualified interpreters in several languages. It remains to be seen how the new system will work, but the measure, although delayed, will help reduce barriers to justice.
That said, structural weaknesses in the dispute resolution system remain: procedures are too slow and workers cannot afford such delays: when a company declares bankruptcy, there are even delays in implementing favorable judgments, and there are no mechanisms to prevent employers from taking legal action against workers who file complaints.
To address the above issues, LMRA can appoint lawyers from its Grievance and Protection Division to provide free legal assistance and obtain power of attorney on behalf of deported migrant workers, after which LMRA can coordinate with embassies and foreign missions to transfer the recovered wages and outstanding amounts to the migrant workers’ bank accounts in their home countries.
The Bahraini government could also identify sources of funding that could be drawn from to pay workers’ wages if employers are genuinely unable to pay settlement payments. This could be insurance funds paid into when companies issue work permits, or unemployment funds into which migrants would pay in any case. Payments from such funds could be recovered from employers through liquidation or the sale of assets.
