Authorities in Bahrain have pledged to investigate the alleged non-payment of salaries to some staff who worked on a new five-star hotel in the kingdom.

Labour Ministry Under-Secretary Sabah Al Dossary told the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication, that inspectors would visit 125 foreign workers who claim they have not received salaries for January and February.

The Indian, Pakistani and Filipino electrical and mechanical staff are employed by Mercury Middle East, which was subcontracted for the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay project by Dubai-based Six Construct.

However, they have been on strike since February 28 when they protested outside the hotel claiming non-payment of wages.

“We have not been contacted by the employees on the matter,” Al Dossary told the GDN yesterday.

“However, we will reach out to them if they are not in a position to come to us.”

“Labour inspectors will visit the (labour) camp and take necessary action based on feedback they get from the employees.

“The ministry will not tolerate any kind of legal violations.”

The employees say they were promised their salaries last week, but were paid just BD50 each on Sunday.

A Mercury Middle East official told the GDN that their wages should have been paid by Six Construct.

However, one of the employees said staff were afraid to complain to their embassies due to concerns that they could lose their jobs.

“We contacted the Indian Embassy by telephone on Monday and they asked us to go to the embassy in person to file a written complaint,” one Indian worker told the GDN.

“But we are scared to do that as we fear our identities will be revealed and we may be sent back home.

“This would mean we would be without pay and jobs.

“It is the same with complaining at the Labour Ministry.

“Also, to leave the camp we have to hire transport apart from the company vehicle - which will again put us in trouble.

“Most of the men are silent because of this and we hope that we will be paid soon.”

Diplomats at the Indian and Pakistan Embassies told the GDN yesterday that they would reach out to the men to assess their situation.

“We will send representatives to the camp to see what could be done,' said Indian Embassy first secretary Ram Singh.

Those sentiments were echoed by Pakistan Embassy community welfare attache Maqsood Shah.

“We are yet to hear from any of the Pakistanis and we learnt about this from the newspaper,” he said.

“Since we learnt that they are not in a position to come to the embassy, we will go to the camp.”

Six Construct declined to comment yesterday. - TradeArabia News Service