18/01/2021
“Prestigious” construction company in Bahrain leaves workers in despair | Migrant-Rights.org
Business & Human Rights
“Prestigious” construction
company in Bahrain leaves
workers in despair
On June 9, 2020
Several hundred workers of Fundament SPC owed up to 8 months of unpaid salaries and nal
settlement have been pushed into despair and struggle to survive in Bahrain.
Following a trend that is now all too common in Bahrain, around 700 workers of Fundament SPC, a
construction company, are victims of non-payment of wages. While all of the workers have pending
salaries of up to 8 months, around 150 workers who resigned six to eight months ago are still waiting for
their dues and settlement. The workers who have not resigned live in a separate camp and continue to
work on active projects, despite not being paid for several months.
According to the workers, the company has paid only one month’s worth of wages every three or four
months for the past couple of years, a common practice in construction companies across the Gulf.
The 150 workers who resigned are currently stranded in their labour camp in Nuwiedrat while they ght
to recoup their wages. The workers’ visas are expired and they struggle to survive without food and
money. They had relied on a cold store near their camp to provide them with groceries on credit, but
with debt piling up the grocery store has stopped lending support.
“All workers here [at the camp] owe between 160 BD (425 USD) to 200 BD (530 USD) each to the cold
store nearby, but now the cold store stopped lending us food as we have not been able to pay back for a
long time… The company is not providing us with anything, only water and gas,” an Indian worker told
Migrant-Rights.org
With the assistance of social workers, the 150 Fundament SPC workers lodged a complaint at the
Ministry of Labour (MoL) on 31 May. Prior to this, the workers had not led a formal complaint.
According to the Indian workers Migrant-Rights.org spoke to, when they rst approached the embassy,
the sta there advised them not to le a formal complaint in the hope that they could negotiate with the
company.
Fundament SPC is a sole proprietorship, owned by Ali Ahmed Ali Al-Derazi who was a Bahraini Member
of Parliament from 2011 to 2014. Bahrain’s Ministry of Housing listed the company as a “Grade A”
building contractor, the highest grade given to construction companies.
Last year, the company won the “Award of Business Excellence” at the 2019 Trilateral Global Summit in
London. Fundament SPC is among the most pro table construction companies in Bahrain and the
company has won contracts for several commercial and residential buildings for both public and private
clients. In 2017, the company won a BD 16 million (USD 41.8 million) bid as the main contractor for the
Al Tijaria Tower project, one of the tallest residential buildings in Bahrain.
https://www.migrant-rights.org/2020/06/prestigious-construction-company-in-bahrain-leaves-workers-in-despair/
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