The Shura Council continues discussion of the Labor Draft Law for the Private Sector during its weekly session

Qudaybiah- Shura Council

During its 13th weekly session of the 4th cycle held on this Monday and chaired by His Excellency Ali bin Saleh Al-Saleh, the Shura Council continued its discussion, which it started during the past two sessions, of the report of the Services Committee on a draft law for the issuance of the Labor Law for the Private Sector, attached to Royal Decree No.45 for the year 2006, beginning with article 34:35 after the renumbering.

The Council started its session by ratifying the agenda of the 12th session. Then, the Council was informed or receipt of a message from His Excellency Khalifa Ahmad Al-Dhahrani, Speaker of the House of Representative, regarding the State’s standardized final account for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2008 and the report on the budget performance of the fiscal year in 2008, and referral of the report to the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee after notification off the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee.

Then, Their Excellencies the Members heard the comment of Her Excellency Member Dalal Jasim Al-Zayed on the response of His Excellency Majeed bin Mohsin Al-Alawi, Minister of Labor, to the question posed by her relative to the Ministry’s strategy to expand the woman’s participation, provision of stimulating environment in the fields of technological and vocational training, grooming of the females in the vocational training programs in comparison with the males, the professional training specialties available for woman which are in tune with the needs and demands of the labor market, reasons for the woman’s absence from vocational and technological training institutions, efforts taken to eliminate these causes, the training programs offered to the women in order to empower her in the various fields of the vocational training areas.

Her Excellency Member Dalal Jasim Al-Zayed highlighted in her comments that the purpose of her question is to increase the incentives for woman to join the various training fields in preparation for her entry in the labor market. She pointed to the presence of a number of training fields, such as electricity, electronics, and mechanics with no female enrolment, which calls for stimulation and media blitz to draw attention to the existence of training programs for women in these fields. She highlighted the need to intensify the media aspect in order to introduce the training programs offered by the Ministry in a way that would serve the objectives sought from these programs.

On his part, His Excellency Dr. Majeed bin Mohsin Al-Alawi, the Minister of Labor, stated that the raised issue is considered one of the Ministry’s important topics, explaining that women account for 3% of the unemployed persons (4% in Bahrain), while 75% of the graduate employment project is directed to women.

His Excellency the Minister revealed that the Ministry will organize next Wednesday a profession exhibit under the generous auspices and patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabikha bint Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, the wife of His Majesty the King and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Woman. The key objectives of the exhibit are to shed light on the employment of women.

Then, Their Excellencies the Members continued discussion of the report of the Services Committee on a draft law for issuance of the Labor Law in the Private Sector, attached to Royal Decree No.45 for the year 2006. During the session, the draft law was debated beginning with article 34:35 (post renumbering) on determination of the nursing and caring hours for working woman. The article was discussed at length by Their Excellencies the Council Members, who expressed varying opinions on the said article, which ended by returning the article again to the Committee so that it may come up with a conciliatory text thereon. Their Excellencies the Members also concluded discussion of Chapter V of the draft law on wages.

Besides, the Council decided, after debating a number of the articles of the draft law, to complete the discussion during the upcoming session of the Council.