Six hundred workers in Bahrain allegedly sacked for absenteeism have so far registered with unionists.

Companies who dismissed staff for allegedly skipping work to take part in anti-government protests will be summoned next week to make their case to labour chiefs.

Our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) reported on Friday that a list of sacked workers was being compiled by the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) to be presented to the Labour Ministry.

Officials are set to review each sacking before deciding if there is a case for unfair dismissal, in which case it will be referred to the Labour Court.

'By next week the picture will be clear and we will call companies to sit on the table and discuss cases of sacked workers,' labour affairs assistant under-secretary Sabah Al Dossary told the GDN yesterday.

'We would like to state here that workers sacked are not eligible for the unemployment insurance scheme. But cases other than this could be reviewed for inclusion in the scheme.'

Al Dossary said every case would be evaluated to determine if the dismissal was appropriate. 'Cases where we discover a worker is dismissed unfairly will be directly referred to the Labour Court.'

Meanwhile, GFBTU announced the sackings of four of its board members who work for Bapco and Batelco. They are Hassan Ahmed Al Khabbaz, Abdul Qader Al Shehabi, Hassan Al Madhi and Maki Abbas.

'We fear the dismissals could be more than 1,000, as some individuals have not registered with us,' said a union spokesman, who confirmed 600 workers had so far contacted the union. Those registered include former employees of Alba, Bapco, APM Terminals, Batelco, Bahrain Airport Services, Gulf Air and several private companies.-TradeArabia News Service