Sacked workers in Bahrain have been thrown a lifeline after it emerged that labour chiefs could intervene on behalf of people found to have been unfairly dismissed.

The Labour Ministry is prepared to evaluate each case and could take legal action against firms that have acted outside the law, a senior official told the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication, on Thursday.

More than 400 employees, sacked for alleged absenteeism during a wave of anti-government protests that started in mid-February, had registered their cases with the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) until yesterday.

The federation will now submit the list of sacked workers - along with the companies who fired them - to the Labour Ministry, which has pledged to look into each case.

"We have asked the federation to collect names of all workers who lost their jobs and provide us with complete details," said the ministry's Labour Affairs assistant under-secretary Sabah Al Dossary.

He said the GFBTU had been charged with collecting names due to the large numbers involved, but said action would be taken over any unfair dismissals.

"The present situation is difficult and we can't have group of sacked workers visiting the ministry to register their names," he explained. "After we receive the complete list from GFBTU, we will sit down with officials from those companies and review the cases."

"Every case will be studied by ministry officials who will decide whether to transfer it to the Labour Court."

Another 57 dismissed workers registered with the GFBTU yesterday, taking the total number sacked so far to 430.

They have come forward to claim unemployment allowances, but some could be entitled to seek legal action against their former bosses if they were unfairly dismissed.

"The list will be given to the labour ministry for further action," said a GFBTU spokesman.

Those who have registered so far include workers from Alba, Bapco, APM Terminals, Batelco and several private companies.

The GFBTU had called a nationwide strike on February 20, but called it off the same day after security forces withdrew from the GCC (Pearl) Roundabout.

It then announced an indefinite strike on March 13 in solidarity with anti-government protesters, after police tried to evict demonstrators from outside the Bahrain Financial Harbour.

Protesters had prevented staff from reaching workplaces by blocking the King Faisal Highway in Manama and attacked police who tried to move them on.

The union later said the strike would be called off once it was safe for workers to resume their duties, after illegal checkpoints were set up across the country when police were pulled out.

Authorities launched a security crackdown on March 16 after evicting protesters from the GCC Roundabout, but the union continued its strike until March 22.

Meanwhile, GFBTU officials said they were awaiting the green light from authorities to allow a delegation from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to visit the country.

Bapco last night said it had sacked 190 staff members "found to be responsible for instigating employees to join the strike called by the GFBTU".

This follows the sacking of nine others, all members of its trade union, a company official said. Investigations involving employees who were absent during the recent unrest are continuing, the official said.-TradeArabia News Service