SME owners yesterday protested outside the LMRA headquarters and alleged that the authority is stifling their livelihood with its regulations.
The business owners also questioned the raison d'etre of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority itself, as well as Tamkeen.
One of the organisers of the protest, Nadar Al Alawi, stated that the demonstration was intended to highlight the plight of marginal business owners in the Kingdom who claim that their income is not high enough for them to adhere to LMRA regulations when employing Bahraini workers as well as expats.
"It's not as though these traders are willful defaulters not wanting to pay the BD10 fee for employing expatriate labour, it's just that that kind of money is not available," Al Alawi stated.
The representative added however that the LMRA expat fees are not the only reason for the protest. Al Alawi explained that under the laws formulated in 2006 for businesses in Bahrain, Rule 19 called for a review of the market situation every two years. He added that depending on this review the LMRA was supposed to decide whether to continue to levy the fee or not.
He stated that another clause calls for the LMRA's performance to be audited by an external party.
Al Alawi alleged that both the review and the audit have not been carried out, or at least the results were not made public. He described this as a clear violation of the regulations, stating that businessmen have the right to view the findings of such studies since they are the ones funding the LMRA.
The representative also lamented the authority's efforts to transform everything into an e-service, stating: "There is a law that says we can respond to any application or make an application for a service to the authority in writing. However, the authority does not accept this law and it has made it mandatory to use the computer for all its communication. They even closed down the counters that handled the written documents."
He claimed that many small business owners are not computer-savvy or do not have the time to learn how to apply for services online. "When the issue was brought to the notice of the authority, they asked us to coordinate with the documentation agencies.
How can we give them information that is not to be passed on to them," he asked.
He also lashed out at Tamkeen and its employment and training programmes, stating: "They are paying the underage children for fun and games - not for entering the job market. If they were serious then the ones benefiting should have been those who are 18 years old and above. These 12-year-olds do not benefit the market in any way at all.
Tamkeen is utilising a part of the LMRA funds and its performance... falls grossly short," he added.
Al Alawi stated that all that the two authorities have served to do is to drive talented locals out and increasing chances for expatriates to become employees of choice.
"The organisation has taken BD170 million from the authority, but show me one company that has used Bahrainis from the Tamkeen outfit. We are seeing an outflow of talent and youth to other countries because of the wrong policies of the organisations that are expected to benefit the businesses here," he stated.
By Alexander M. Arrackal
© Bahrain Tribune 2010
