Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has announced that all the 319 reinstated employees are now on the company’s payroll as of May 1 (International Labour Day) of which 220 employees have already returned to work.

This announcement is in line with the directives issued by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness the Prime Minister, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander, Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa on reinstatement of dismissed employees.

Announcing this on Monday, Alba’s head of employee relations, Hamad Alshaibeh said, “Alba recorded a high number of reinstatements in response to directives issued by the leadership. 319 employees were reinstated out of which 220 have already returned to work. As for the remainder, the process of finding suitable positions for them is already underway.”

Alba’s Human Resources & Training manager, Abdul Rahman Al Janahi said, 'We are also introducing incentives – such as 5 per cent increase in salaries – for anyone volunteering to move to Reduction Potlines 1, 2 and 3 where the company still has available vacancies. This is both applicable to existing employees as well as to those who have been recently reinstated.'

'We’ve been encouraged by the warm welcome that the reinstated employees have received since they’ve joined the company. Many of our current workers moved to other departments just to ensure that the reinstated employees could be accommodated to their old jobs,' he added.

Al Janahi said the company also seeks to reduce contracted and hired labour in a move to create job opportunities for the reinstated employees.

Commenting on the move, Alba’s chief executive, Laurent Schmitt said, 'As one of the pillars of Bahrain’s economy for the past 40 years, Alba remains committed to support the country’s leadership in initiatives that strengthen social, economic and stability across the kingdom.'

'We aim to provide the reinstated employees with proper opportunities for them to grow in the organization – this adjustment might take some time as the company has to work on internal mobility for its workforce,' he noted.

Alba had earlier announced that it had finalised the reinstatement process, and that all dismissed employees were under company payroll effective March 6 this year.-TradeArabia News Service