Rights to Fire

Human needs and basic rights have always been the cause of activists that have long fought for what’s humanly right. People’s physical needs are relatively satisfied, with the individual’s safety needs taking precedence and dominate behavior. Even before Maslow’s introduction of his Hierarchy of Needs in 1954, international labor laws (employment law) were established to address the legal rights of and restrictions on, working people and their organizations to ensure their employment rights are protected. As such, it mediated many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees. Amongst these laws is the individual labor law which concerns employees’ rights at work and through the contract for work like: Wage concerns, Working Time, Health and Safety, Anti-discrimination and of course the currently rising, Unfair Dismissal.

The law pertaining to the dismissal of a worker from his employment has been the object of intense scrutiny, both on a national and international level in recent years. While a number of countries have made significant strides in the area of job protection, standards worldwide are by no means uniform.

Bahrain for decades has been a country with enforced laws pertaining to Labor which preserves the rights of the workers, however, what happened to Bahrain is no coincidence, as it was a planned General Strike (aka Civil Disobedience) that cost Bahrain more than approximately $100 Million in losses from only 9 Companies, let alone the entire damages of the whole country. According to reliable sources in just industrial companies, during the social unrest more than 25,000 working hours have been lost which is meant to be a driving force for a country that relies heavily on its manpower to fuel its economic growth, the same economy that is meant to be paying their monthly wages has been harmed due to a large group's political interference and ambitions in society that has crawled into the national workplace environment.  

[[With a Clear Breakdown of Only 1 Company's Hours Lost]]:

                 8 hours a day x 10 days x 3 shift cycle= 240 hours lost in only one company.



The national and international labor laws have been violated one by one and exploited by the protestors whose aims were not professional labor reforms, but political unrest, social instability and economic losses. Below are many of the divulged laws violated by the protestors on a local and global scale.

- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights- United Nations (Laws)



Article(8).d. United Nations General Assembly Resolution

"The right to strike, provided that it is exercised in conformity with the laws of the particular country".

Article (8).2. United Nations General Assembly Resolution

"This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions or the exercise of these rights by members of the armed forces or of the police or of the administration of the State".

Source: UN Laws

Thus, when the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Union declared, that 900 have been dismissed from their jobs, is considered a rather minimal percentage to the 70,000 who have demonstrated illegally, breaking the basic labor laws and contract of employment causing massive economic losses. According to the law, it should be an even larger percentage who should have been dismissed, but due to reasonable implementation of the law, a dot percentage is affected by their own actions.   

Before we can go further into general private and public sector laws of the country, it is important to note that:

As issued in Article 20 of the Trade Union Act after its amendments, it is prohibited for Trade Union Organizations to:

1-      Exercise Political Action: “Any Declaration or Exercise of political action coming out from the Trade Union is a direct assault on the right of other workers and constitutes a violation of the law”.

Below: Declaration by General Federation of Bahrain Trade Union (urging general strike despite it being illegal).

                                                                           For the English Version

For Public Sector – Civil Service Bureau (Kingdom of Bahrain):

Article (21). Duties & Prohibited Acts

“The employee must work honestly and with integrity to ensure the dignity of his job and place of work”.

Article(22). Administrative Investigation & Disciplinary

“Any employee who violates the provisions of this Act or its implementing regulations, resolutions or executive instructions, or shows or any appearances of prejudice to the dignity of the post or entity to which he belongs, will be sought and chastised under disciplinary reasons”.

Article (28). Anti-Disciplinary Outage

“The employee is considered resigned if he/she misses work for 15 days consecutively or 30 work days disjointedly. If the employee does not provide legitimate grounds for his absence and was reasons rejected, then his service is terminated from the date of his absence from work”. 

Source: Civil Service Bureau Laws

For Private Sector – Bahrain Labor Law - prescribed by Bahrain Labor Ordinance (Kingdom of Bahrain):

Article (113).4 Labor Law

“If the worker absents himself without reasonable cause for more than 20 days in one year or for more than 10 consecutive days, provided that such dismissal shall be preceded by warning in writing by the employer to the worker after an absence of ten days in the former instance and an absence of five days in the latter instance”.

Article (113).5 Labor Law

“An employer shall dismiss worker if the worker fails to perform his essential duties under the contract of employment”.

 Source: Bahrain Labor Law

Legal Strike Terms and Conditions Include:

1-     Approval from the majority of the General Assembly of the Organization for the Declared Strike by Trade Union

2-     Notifying the Employer Fifteen days prior to the carrying out of the Strike (Violation)

3-     Do not stop the work flow or working while the dispute is being settled through conciliation and arbitration (Violation)

4-     Conducting a Strike at vital installations are prohibited by law and would result in a strike to undermine national security or disturbance in the functionality of the daily life of citizens under Resolution No. 62 for the year 2006, the identified vital facilities that are prohibited from Strike are (Violation):

·        Security

·        Civil Defense

·        Airports

·        Ports

·        Hospitals, Medical Centers and Pharmacies

·        All means of transport of people and goods

·        Telecommunications

·        Electricity

·        Water

·        Bakeries

·        Educational Institutions

·        Oil and Gas facilities

Source: Legal Terms as Declared by Prime Minister Legal Terms as Declared by Prime Minister

                                Bapco Employee at a Political Demonstration causing Social Unrest

                                                                   Alba Employee at the Illegal Protest

Alba Employees causing an Illegal Nation Wide Civil Disobedience

                                          Doctors & Nurses Protesting Illegally despite disallowance

                                Social Worker at Riffa Al Shargi Boys School absent from Work causing Social Unrest

       Doctor wearing a tshirt translates to "I am the next Martyr" which not only goes against the law by the law of conduct  


                                                   Cineco Worker leaving work to join illegal demonstration

                             Industrial Workers leaving their duties for an illegal political demonstration

More Images of Industrial Workers that chose to listen to the unreliable General Federation of BahrainTrade Union by leaving their work and putting their country in turmoil

Legal Means to Prosecute the General Union:

Prosecuting the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Union on the basis of peer transgressions and legal criminal complaint by the way of the Code: Article 293 of Legislative Decree No. 15 of 1976 issuing the Penal Code after amendments:

1- "If three public officials leave their work, even in the form of resignation or abstain intentionally to perform any of their duties on purpose and to achieve a common purpose should all be punished by imprisonment not exceeding one year for refraining from their professional duties, putting people's lives or their health or safety in danger in addition to disrupting or striving to malfunction the public interest as the offender is in this case is an instigator".  

2- Article 294 of the Act has provided that "the punishment is imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or a fine of fifty dinars per public officer who leaves or refrains from action of his duties with a view to prevent the course of the work".

Contrary to the known universal idiom; No bad deed goes unpunished, not when it involves the safety, security, economy, and political stability of a nation. The country no longer has to stretch its boundaries when the people of the country were conspiring for its downfall. Bahrain and its reputable institutions by law have every right to fire employees who were instigators and participators in the social unrest. Someone once said "the trouble with the laws these days is that criminals know their rights better than their wrongs". When a country fights to give its people their rights to defend their work, it is only fair that they respect it, but apparently people committing unlawful acts actually believe they will go unharmed. We are not living in a Utopia, welcome to the real world, where real punishments apply.