Bahrain's unionists have submitted a list of dismissed workers to the Labour Ministry for the evaluation of each case in co-ordination with employers.

The General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) listed details of 776 sacked workers with names of their companies and organisations.

'We have received four to five files with details of the sacked workers from the unions,' said the ministry's labour affairs assistant under-secretary Sabah Al Dossary.

'Our staff at the ministry will immediately start working on them and evaluate each case.

'Company officials will be called in cases where unfair dismissal is found and will be directly referred to Labour Court.'

The list, submitted by GFBTU member Mohammed Al Maki, contained the names of workers who applied for the monthly unemployment insurance scheme.

The workers in the past two weeks visited the federation in Adliya to register for the scheme that assures new job-seekers monthly assistance of BD150, while undergraduates get BD120. A union official said 776 names were collected until Sunday, including women.

'We have about 40 women among the list of sacked workers,' said GFBTU women and children affairs assistant secretary-general Suad Mubarak.

'They were dismissed for participating in protests and in the general strike.'

She said that most of the sacked women workers were from Batelco.

'These are only the women who came to the union premises to register for the insurance scheme,' said Mubarak.

'There are still several women sacked from their jobs, who have not come forward.'

A copy of the final list showed that the highest number of sacked workers who registered was from Alba at 189 followed by 145 from Bapco, 127 from APM Terminal and 117 from Batelco. Others include Gulf Air with 51 sacked workers, 47 from Bahrain Airport Services, 14 from Banagas, 14 from Asry, three from Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry among others.

Six GFBTU board members sacked from their companies, including the union deputy secretary-general, are on the list.

Three dismissed staff from the Education Ministry are also registered in the list.

Our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) reported yesterday that the ministry suspended 111 employees for participating in anti-government protests and strikes called by the dissolved Bahrain Teachers Society.

Ministries and companies in the private sector dismissed staff for allegedly skipping work to take part in anti-government protests, including a nationwide strike called by GFBTU, and unjustified absenteeism.

GFBTU last month contacted a coalition group of seven political societies to engage in the national dialogue process initiated by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander.

However, they refused to come to the table until certain conditions were met.-TradeArabia News Service