Bahrain’s government has rejected a proposal to increase the cost of hiring foreign workers outside prescribed Bahrainisation quotas, warning that a salary-linked fee system could encourage manipulation and delay work permit approvals.
The proposal sought to replace the existing fixed additional fee of BD500 for a two-year work permit issued outside an establishment’s Bahrainisation quota with a progressive charge ranging from BD500 to BD2,500, based on the foreign worker’s average monthly salary. The additional revenue would have been channelled through the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) to support training for Bahraini nationals and subsidise their wages.
In a response to Parliament, Parliament and Shura Council Affairs Minister Ghanim Al Buainain said the existing mechanism was more practical and had already helped encourage businesses to employ Bahraini nationals.
“The standard applied to measure the prescribed Bahrainisation ratios is the total number of employees in the establishment,” he said.
Under the current system, employers that meet the prescribed Bahrainisation ratios are exempt from the additional charge, while those that do not comply can pay BD500 on top of the applicable work permit fee.
Al Buainain said the system allows authorities to apply the required ratios electronically and consistently across establishments. He added that the arrangement had increased compliance with Bahrainisation requirements and reduced the number of businesses employing foreign workers outside their quotas by paying the additional fee.
Government flags risks of salary-based fees
The minister said linking work permit charges to individual salaries would create verification challenges, as an employee’s average wage could not be reliably established when an application was submitted.
“The proposed alternative would create practical difficulties because an employee’s average wage could not be reliably verified when a work permit application was submitted,” he said.
Employers could declare lower salaries to avoid higher fees, while differences in job categories and wages could create opportunities to manipulate job titles or reported earnings, he warned. Authorities could also face difficulties determining whether the declared salary remained accurate after a permit was issued.
“Such practices could undermine the proposed system before it even took effect, making it difficult to ensure that the correct fee was charged for each foreign worker,” Al Buainain said.
A salary-based system could also slow down work permit processing by requiring additional checks and verification, he added.
The government therefore declined to recommend adopting the proposal, citing the potential implementation challenges and unintended consequences.
“We reaffirm our commitment to make Bahraini workers the preferred choice for employers, using foreign-worker fees to help finance national training, qualification and employment support programmes,” the minister said.
The proposal was among 50 government responses scheduled for discussion by MPs on 13 October.
Bahrain uses labour market data to align education with jobs
In a separate response to Parliament, the government outlined its efforts to align education and training with labour market requirements, saying existing initiatives already address the objectives of a proposal to review in-demand specialisations every four years.
The Education Ministry analyses secondary school results and labour market indicators, while the Higher Education Council monitors graduate employment and requires private universities seeking approval for new programmes to submit studies demonstrating labour market demand.
The Civil Service Bureau works with relevant authorities to assess future government staffing needs and inform the annual scholarship plan. Meanwhile, the Labour Ministry compiles employment statistics to identify university specialisations sought by employers and plans to publish the figures online to help prospective students make informed decisions.
Al Buainain also highlighted Tamkeen’s Bahrain Skills initiative, which examines workforce requirements and identifies gaps between available skills and those needed by employers.
Ten sector reports have been completed, covering tourism and hospitality, energy, construction and real estate, transport and logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, financial services, communications and financial technology.
The Employment Skills Platform, launched in 2024, provides information on university majors, job demand, salary levels and training opportunities.
These initiatives aim to help students, graduates and jobseekers make better-informed career decisions while bringing education and training closer to the needs of Bahrain’s public and private sectors.
Government defends existing wage support mechanism
The government has also rejected a proposal for Tamkeen to pay wage subsidies directly to Bahraini workers, arguing that the existing arrangement provides safeguards to ensure employees receive their salaries on time.
Under the National Employment Programme, eligible salaries receive support covering 30% to 70% of wages for three to five years.
“Tamkeen pays employers only after verifying salary payments through bank transfer records,” Al Buainain said.
He warned that direct payments could allow employers to evade their contractual obligations or divide salaries into separate payments. Workers who encounter violations were encouraged to report them through Tamkeen’s communication channels.
Separately, the government told Parliament that the ministries of Health, Labour and Information, along with Government Hospitals and Primary Healthcare Centres, had no employees registered under temporary employment contracts.
Al Buainain said existing civil service laws already regulate public-sector employment and protect job security. In response to a proposal to regularise temporary workers, he added that the General Directorates of Sunni and Jaffari Endowments were working to regularise contracts for employees whose continued service was required, subject to available vacancies, budgets and operational needs.
The responses reflect the government’s position that existing mechanisms for workforce nationalisation, wage support and labour market planning should be strengthened rather than replaced with arrangements that could create administrative or compliance challenges.