Second Bahrain company hit by striking workers

A second group of Bahrain labourers have gone on strike in a dispute over pay, it emerged on Sunday.

Nearly 75 workers at a Ma'ameer-based Abu Amer Equipment Hiring Company stopped work on Saturday demanding unlawful cuts in their pay to be halted.

The Indians, Nepalis and Pakistanis refused to get on buses that came to transport them to their construction site at 5.30am, Gulf Daily News reported on Sunday.

The strike follows similar action by more than 5,000 construction workers at Al Hamad Contracting Co which only ended after the firm paid out part of the outstanding wages, the Ministry of Labour said on Thursday.

The building workers, employed by the local branch of the UAE-based Al Hamad, staged the strike on Wednesday.

In the latest strike action, workers accused the company of deducting money from their salaries to pay for machinery repairs and forcing them to do work that they are not supposed to.

The demands of the men, who receive a monthly salary ranging from BD75 to BD100, also included a 20 percent raise, salaries to be given at a fixed date every month and skilled or semi-skilled workers not to be forced to do the work of unskilled workers.

A company spokesman said the strike was illegal as the workers had not informed the company or the Labour Ministry about it.

"We came to know about it and the list of demands only this morning," he said.

"How do they expect us to find a solution in an hour? We are open for discussion and ready to address their issues and have asked them to come to the office in a group of five to 10."

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