Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's High Administrative Court, presided over by judge Jomaa Mousa with the memberships of judges Mohammad Tawfik and Ashraf Abdulhadi and Abdullah Ibrahim as secretariat, rejected the case brought forth by the Bahrain Free Labour Unions Federation, asking the Ministry of Interior to name the Union as the official representative of Bahrain.

The court said in its whereases that section 3 of article 8 of the Workers' Trade Union Law issued by decree 33/2002 and amended by decree 35/2011 stipulates that "At the level of the Kingdom, in international fora, and in collective bargaining with employers and their organizations, the workers of the Kingdom of Bahrain shall be represented by the trade union federation. The competent Minister shall promulgate an order by virtue of which, the name of the union federation representing the workers of the Kingdom of Bahrain shall be determined."

The court said that the defendant issued a decree that stipulates naming the "The General Federation of Workers Trade Unions in Bahrain" representative of Bahrain's workers in the international forums pursuant to section 3 of article 8 of the Trade Union Law. Thus, the law issued by the Ministry of Labour naming The General Federation as Bahrain's representative is valid.

The Bahrain Free Labour Unions Federation claims that it is the biggest workers' trade union in Bahrain and that there should be a law naming it representative of Bahraini workers, which the court rejected.

Arabic Version