By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS
Dubai : Around 700 overseas workers of a Bahrain construction company who went on strike demanding higher pay have resumed duties after an agreement with the company authorities.
“The workers sorted out the problems with the company authorities and rejoined their duties Wednesday,” a source in the Indian embassy in Bahrain told IANS by the phone from Manama Thursday.
The workers, most of them Indians, went on strike Monday. They alleged they were paid between 60 and 80 Bahraini dinars (BD) a month by their employer, Almoayyed Conracting, and threatened not to return to work unless they got a better deal.
“Our basic salary for a month ranges from BD60 to BD85, but we want it raised to between BD100 and BD120 – that is by nearly BD40,” local media reports quoted a striking worker as saying.
The company, however, denied this and said that the workers’ salaries ranged from BD75 to BD150.
Now, however, the company has agreed to give a BD15 hike to the workers.
“The company has given a BD10 salary hike to the workers and another BD5 as food allowance,” the source told IANS.
The rising rupee and depreciation of most of the dollar-pegged Gulf currencies have added to the woes of Indian workers in this region.
“Now, with Bahrain’s inflation and the Indian rupee getting stronger, we cannot even manage to send home BD20,” another striking worker had told a local newspaper.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has set a benchmark of a minimum salary of BD100 for all unskilled workers in Bahrain, including those in the construction sector.
The new measure will come into effect March 1.