A major shake-up of Bahrain's largest trade union federation is underway.

The General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU), which until 2012 was the only labour federation in Bahrain, currently has more than 60 separate unions under its umbrella, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

As things stand these unions are tied to the firms where their members work - but under a new system proposed at a two-day International Labour Organisation (ILO) workshop that concluded earlier this week, the unions that represent all workers in a certain industry will be grouped together.

According to GFBTU officials, this re-organisation will reduce the number of trade unions operating under the federation by 80 per cent and is expected to be complete by June.

"What we currently have in Bahrain are trade unions operating in individual establishments, which could be called establishment trade unions," said GFBTU spokesman Karim Radhi.

"Our aim now is to establish sector-wide trade unions, which will group together existing unions with the same industry such as health, education, oil, metal and construction.

"The benefits of this move are many, but perhaps most importantly it will help the GFBTU work on strategic labour issues pertaining to each industry rather than working on issues related only to individual companies and their employees.

"It will lift a large burden off our office, as currently we are overloaded with the day-to-day labour affairs of individuals and their employers."

The work currently done by "establishment trade unions" could now be delegated to satellite offices based in each company or firm, Radhi said.

"This is also in line with the government's amended labour law, which encourages trade union pluralism," he said.

"As of now employees in the government sector cannot form their own union as the law has no provision for it - but they will be able to join the sector-wide unions, once they are established.

"With this new system in place government school teachers, for example, could join the education trade union and similarly public sector medics could join the health trade union.

"This is not a new move in the region - we have heard examples of successful sector-wide trade unions established elsewhere in the Arab world and we hope to do the same by mid-2015."

GFBTU has around 25,000 members, of whom less than 10pc are expatriates.

A second federation, called the Bahrain Free Labour Union Federation, was launched in 2012 and now has 18 trade unions and an estimated 20,000 members, including expatriates, under its umbrella.

The ILO workshop was held at the K Hotel, Juffair, on Saturday and Sunday and saw GFBTU officials trained on ways to establish sector-wide trade unions, among other recommendations. - TradeArabia News Service