Information Minister Jihad Bukamal on Wednesday pledged to improve the employment structure at the Bahrain Radio and Television Corporation.

Speaking during a meeting with newspapers editors and journalists at his office in Isa Town, he said the ministry had received more than 86 requests from the country's newspapers to improve the BRTC, said a report in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

'This tells us there is a national request to improve and develop the BRTC and we are working towards that,' said Bukamal.

'We want to get the qualified cadre to be able to create a healthy work environment that can build creativity.'

Bukamal stressed the station would not be able to succeed without the right qualified cadre that can manage it and lead it to success.

'A lot of institutes are measured with the number of qualified cadre it has and not on the assets. This shows human resources are the key to any institute's success,' he said.

Responding to the issue of the future BRTC projects, Bukamal said there were a huge number of proposals, including improving the way programmes are presented.

The minister also vowed to do his best to keep Bahraini staff capable of ensuring success for the BRTC.

More than 150 employees staged a sit-in protest in August calling for better wages and conditions.

They called for a cadre, an increase in salaries, incentives and bonuses as well as allowances for 'risky' jobs such as reporting from a helicopter or covering demonstrations, among other demands.

The workers also claimed that over the last two years, several colleagues had resigned because of cuts in pay and shift timings.

Bukamal stressed the steps implemented since the employment of chief executive officer Ahmed Najem in June were to find the right human resources and creative the right environment for the BRTC to flourish.

Bukamal said the rotation policy was implemented to benefit staff so they could gain more experience and stop their jobs from becoming routine.

'An employee will give his best for the first five to six years and then the job becomes a routine and he won't be able to be creative,' he said.

'We are rotating to the benefit of the employee so he can use his experience in another field and it is not permanent.' - TradeArabia News Service