Over 2,000 employees of a contracting company, mostly Indians, have stopped work protesting poor living conditions and lack of an allowance for working in a high-risk work environment in the Bahraini firm.
Of the 2,000 agitating workers 1,489 are Indians, 218 Pakistanis, 109 Filipinos, 97 Nepalis and 4 Bangladeshis.
Embassy officials of the four countries met the workers and the management of the Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) to iron out a solution to the problem.
The Bahrain Ministry of Labour has sent an arbitration team to talk to both workers and management to resolve the crisis even if it warned that the protest was illegal.
The company officials also called the protest as illegal.
"It seems that poor living conditions are at the core of the discontent among the workers," Second Secretary at the Indian Embassy, R Raghunathan said.
The workers have presented a list of 13 demands to the management, that include better air conditioning, toillet facilities and a safer working environment.
Community volunteer John Iype, who is also involved in reaching a solution, said, "The workers say that they are served bad food which is neither nutritional nor tasty, that they get no medical care and all complaints are treated with doses of paracetamol."
{{/usCountry}}Community volunteer John Iype, who is also involved in reaching a solution, said, "The workers say that they are served bad food which is neither nutritional nor tasty, that they get no medical care and all complaints are treated with doses of paracetamol."
{{/usCountry}}Ahmed Al Kabbaz, senior labour relations specialist in the Ministry of Labour, said the management had agreed to meet some of the demands of the workers.