Posted on » Thursday, July 15, 2010

 I read the letter ‘Business crippled by labour rules’. The employer seems to be a good man and I hope he hires good people. However, he has failed to understand the LMRA and expatriate mentality.

The LMRA is trying to get employers to hire Bahrainis which is a great effort. I fail to understand why employers are against the BD10 charge for every expat they hire when the LMRA is using this money to empower Bahrainis with skills they would require to do the jobs expatriates are doing today.

Regarding changing jobs and mobility, well, this is as per international labour practices and if you are against them, then it is a human trafficking issue.

The employer speaks about his experience in bringing expatriate workers and their decision to leave him, this happens all over the world.

Every expatriate is more interested in the money than the company and is here to earn and not to do social service.

However, not every expatriate is ungrateful. I have been working for my company for four years and the only reason is the employer gave me this opportunity to come to Bahrain.

The day I leave him, I want to have his best wishes, I want to take his company to greater heights and then leave. This is an issue of ungrateful employees and has nothing to do with LMRA.

I think the kind employer needs to find kind and humble employees. However, sitting in the sun and asking LMRA to change its rules will only affect other employees.

An employee, who decides to leave a company, will do it anyhow. I think it is better to have hard-working employees than unhappy, grumbling ones.

B J
Hard facts of life

In reply to ‘Business crippled by labour rules’, I understand your problem. Many small companies face it. It’s not only in Bahrain, it’s a global issue.

There are always big companies that offer better pay. In the US, India or European countries, people jump from one job to another like going to a park. There is no such thing as loyalty. They stay due to many factors – pay, job environment, company status, etc.

We live in the 21st century. Employees are not slaves anymore. Everyone has the right to switch jobs, we can’t hold anyone back and force them to work.

Small or big company, the issue is the same – employees leave at any time.

Don’t take it to heart and look for someone else.

My advice is if you make only BD1,000/2,000 profit, then it’s better to do it yourself because hiring a lot of people in the initial stage is not a good business idea.

Ali