Majeed Mohsen Al Alawi is Bahrain's former Minister of Labour Affairs. For a short time, he was also Minister of Housing. Under his leadership, the country carried out wide-ranging labour reforms with potentially profound implications for its economy and society. The reforms were not without controversy, and Al Alawi often faced stiff opposition. Media reports dated 17 March 2011 indicated that, along with the Minister of Health, Al Alawi resigned from the Bahraini Cabinet in the wake of the government crackdown on protests in Bahrain. These reports were confirmed on 24 March 2011 when a new Minister of Housing was appointed.
Al Alawi only returned to Bahrain in 2002; previously he was one of the exiled leaders of the London-based opposition movement, the Bahrain Freedom Movement, which in the 1990s assumed the responsibility for articulating the demands of the 1990s uprising. Along with other BFM leaders Sheikh Ali Salman and Dr Mansoor Al-Jamri, Al Alawi returned to Bahrain to participate in the political process after King Hamad embarked on a process of reconciliation and democratisation. An academic by background, he is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
In December 2007, he had a terse exchange of views with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates at the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Manama Dialogue security summit over US attitudes to Israel’s nuclear arsenal, challenging Gates as to whether he thought "the Zionist (Israeli) nuclear weapon is a threat to the region" Gates replied that he did not and proposed instead that Iran was the threat not Israel, a response that was met with "laughter and derision" according to the Washington Post.
Reforms
Al Alawi's approach to labour reforms was to work closely with Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Economic Development Board and, since its establishment in 2006, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority. The blueprint for the reforms was laid out in a 2004 landmark report by the global management consultancy firm, McKinsey and Company, and the implementation process has seen the Ministry of Labour working closely with the International Labour Organization, the United States Department of Labor, local newly established trade unions and the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Trade unions legalised
In 2002, the Workers Trade Union Law was passed by the government allowing the formation of free trade unions for the first time in the private sector. Bahrain's large expatriate workforce is also eligible to unionise as part of the reforms.
The main trade union body is the General Federation of Workers Trade Unions in Bahrain, which is a member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions' Annual Survey 2005 highlighted: "Bahrain, a bright spot in an otherwise dismal landscape of persistent labour rights violations in the Middle East". According to the ICFTU:
All cases where employees are dismissed from their jobs are referred to the courts, Al Alawi told parliament in January 2008, and in the previous cases, Al Alawi said "Three unionists have won in court, six have been reinstated and nine are waiting for verdicts." He has also criticised Bahraini telecommunications company, Batelco, for sacking two trade unionist involved in an industrial dispute. Al Alawi said "Batelco has broken the law when it sacked the unionists, who were not on strike but were protesting outside working hours. It should reinstate these unionists, instead of replacing them with the expatriates it brings."
Introduction of unemployment benefit
The Labour Ministry pushed legislation through parliament in 2007 to introduce unemployment benefit, set at 60% of previous earnings. First-time jobseekers get 120 Bahraini Dinar (320 US dollars) a month in the case of undergraduates, or BD150 (400 dollars) for graduates. These figures were worked out in consultations during 2005 and 2006 between the General Federation of Workers Trade Unions in Bahrain, the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Labour, consultations which were brokered by the International Labour Organization. The scheme is financed by a 3% contribution on wages split equally between employers, workers and the government, the proceeds of which are reserved for UI purposes. This social insurance contribution comes on top of other similar contributions in Bahrain, for pensions and employment injury.