Expatriates working for the Bahraini government could get generous gratuity when they leave the service, according to a new proposal, expected to be debated by the Parliament in two months.
Under the proposed sch-eme, an expatriate who retries from the public sector would be paid 15 per cent of the last annual salary, multiplied by the number of employment years, the author of the proposal, MP Othman Mohammed Sharif, told Gulf News.
The money is to be paid from a special fund, to be put under the umbrella of the Pension Fund, the age-ncy that pays retirement salaries of Bahraini employees.
An expatriate employee would pay to the fund a monthly compulsory subscription fee that equals seven per cent of his salary. Another eight per cent would be paid by the government.
The special fund is to be called the Gratuity Fund for the Government Non-Bahraini Employees, Sharif said. An employee whose service is terminated because of death or disability would get the same proposed gratuity plus five years added to the number of their years of service, according to the proposed scheme.
Over 3,100 expatriates work for the Bahraini government, according to official figures released recently. The number includes 1,305 Indians, 821 Egyptians and 238 Filipinos.
According to the current system of the public service, a retiring expatriate employee is paid a month's salary for each year in the service, with a maximum of 15 years.
"The current system costs the government a big financial burden and restricts the gratuity payment to the first 15 years," said Sharif. The proposal aims to take part of the burden off the government shoulders and guarantee the employee a decent payment at the end of the service, he explained.
The scheme would also insure there is sufficient money in the fund when a good number of long-time employees retire at the same time, he said. "Money in the fund could also be invested in financing social and economic projects that benefit the community," he added.
The proposal also means that part of the money that expatriates normally transfer to their home countries would stay in Bahrain, Sharif said. "This is going to be good for the local economy," he added.
Gulf economists estimate that the millions of expatriate workers in the six GCC states, particularly from the Indian sub-continent and the Philippines, transfer billions of dollars annually to their home countries.
In Saudi Arabia alone, expatriates remitted a staggering $76 billion outside the kingdom in the past five years, according to a study conducted by Ihsan Buhulaiga, a well-known economist and member of the Saudi appointed Shura (consultative) Council and published recently by Arab News.
Sharif's proposal is now being studied by the Parliament's financial and economic affairs and legal affairs committees. He said it could go to the Parliament floor in late February.
Gulf News
