The Geneva-based International Labor Organization (ILO) is to send a delegate to Manama next month to help Bahrain with moves to legalize trade unions, a labor committee official said Wednesday, May 30.
Abdullah Hussein, secretary general of the semi-official General Committee for Workers of Bahrain which liaises between employers and workers, told AFP that the official was expected on June 17.
The emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa, met the committee Monday and called on members to speed up their work on articles of a draft law for a union of workers and employees, said Hussein.
Labor Minister Abdel Nabi Al-Shuala said in April that the authorities ― as part of democratic reforms ― were "working on union laws," which would make Bahrain only the second Gulf Arab state after Kuwait to have trade unions.
A mid-February referendum won massive support for a national charter to restore democracy and parliamentary life in Bahrain.
The charter also calls for a split between executive, legislative and judiciary powers, equal rights for women and men, and the transformation of the emirate into a constitutional monarchy. ― (AFP, Manama)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
