Bahraini parliamentarians want to ban expats from working in up to 35 different professions and to increase the minimum wage for Bahraini nationals by 83 percent to 550 Bahraini dinars ($1,462.77), according to a report by the Gulf Daily News (GDN) website on Monday.
Two new proposals were officially submitted to parliament on Saturday. The first called for the complete Bahrainisation of 35 professions in the kingdom, therefore banning any foreign workers from taking part in them.
The full list of 35 professions was not announced but the GDN report said they are likely to include areas such as education, currency exchange, accounting and marketing.
“These fields are currently full of expatriates, who could be replaced by Bahrainis. For example, there are 30 money exchange companies in Bahrain and, if they were fully Bahrainised, we are looking at 3,000 jobs easily,” Ahmed Al Salloom, one of the members of parliament involved in submitting the proposal, was quoted as saying.
The move comes as another bill has called for the complete Bahrainisation of all sectors, with fines of up to 20,000 Bahraini dinars for companies that flout the law.
A second proposal called for the minimum wage for Bahrainis to be increased to 550 Bahraini dinars. At present, the minimum a national in the kingdom can be paid per month is 300 Bahraini dinars.
Follow us on
