The liberalisation of job markets in GCC countries has always been an issue of heated debate, whether at the domestic level or the level of global organisations, especially the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
On August 1, Bahrain started scrapping the sponsorship system for foreigners in response to demands by the ILO to improve the conditions of foreign workforce.
Bahrain’s decision will allow foreign workers to change their workplaces without approval from former sponsors. This is a landmark step that will have an important impact on the job market, especially after the Bahraini Ministry of Labour had earlier issued a ban on withholding passports of foreign workers by their sponsors.
The move has been widely welcomed by international organisations and some local bodies at a time when Bahraini businessmen and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry voiced reservations and made some observations, some of which deserve to be studied carefully.
Response to global changes is inevitable in view of globalisation, yet this must be done within regulations that ensure the rights of all stakeholders and take into consideration the conditions of concerned countries and the impacts of any step on the economic development.
This step lacks such regulations, as it is known that the foreign workforce arrives in GCC countries without prior training.
All the know-how and training required for the job is acquired by these workers in Gulf countries.
Hence, if we assumed that a national company or a businessman brought in a number of foreign workers and spent money on training them, a problem will arise when the foreign workers decide to leave the employer, and move to other companies for better salaries or better work environment.
In principle, moving from one workplace to another is the right of workers, which complies with international standards and regulations.
In the meantime, the law has to preserve the right of investors.
It is not feasible for a work owner to bring in another workforce and train them, only to lose them again and restart the process all over again.
Hence, there should be a law that obligates the worker to continue working at the same job for a certain period, probably three years, before moving to another job. In case the worker decided to move to another job before completing the compulsory period, the law should obligate him to pay the training fees, or a specialised authority should pay for the investor, the training cost and fees in compensation.
There are several solutions and regulations that harmonise between the international demands and workers’ rights on one side and the interest of investors and economic growth on the other.
This issue is very important for the coming GCC development era, which requires these countries to regulate the job market clearly and accurately.
The new law applied in Bahrain has not taken all these issues into account. In its reaction to reservations made by businessmen and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Bahraini Labour Market Regulatory Authority suggested that the new rule should be given a chance to be implemented in order to see its impacts on the job market, because this issue is very important and must be subject to a study before implementation.
This is simply because going through uncertain experiments may harm the development process.
There are other GCC countries that seek to follow suit and implement similar laws, as indicated by Gulf labour ministers. Therefore engaging chambers of industry and commerce, by making use of their views and ideas relating to the Gulf job market, will serve the stability and development of the Gulf work market.
The needs of GCC lob markets will grow immensely over the coming years as a result of the expected growth in Gulf economies.
The demand for skilled workers in particular will increase in Gulf countries, whether these skilled workers are Gulf nationals or expatriates.
The pressure exerted by the ILO will also increase, thus flexible laws will be required to take all parties concerned into account.