PART 1: THE CONSOLIDATED ACT ON SOCIAL INSURANCE

CHAPTER X

COLLECTION OF CONTRIBUTIONS, PAYMENTS
AND CONTROL

Article 113

Payments due to the General Organisation under the provisions of this Law shall be preferred claims upon the debtor's movable and immovable property, and shall be recovered immediately after the judicial fees and sums due to the public treasury and expenses of upkeep and maintenance.

Article 114

Subject to the provisions of Article 104 hereof, the schedule of payments due to the General Organisation which are officially ratified by the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, shall be deemed to be official warrants valid for levying attachment on property and for compulsory execution against the debtor's property.

Article 115

All payments due to the General Organisation shall be settled notwithstanding the dissolution, liquidation, close-down, bankruptcy or merger of the establishment or its conveyance by inheritance, legacy, sale, assignment or any other disposition. The successor and the former employers shall be held jointly and severally responsible for all obligations due by them to the General Organisation.

Article 116

The General Organisation may permit an employer to settle the payments due to it by instalments under the conditions and in the manner prescribed by an Order of the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs on the recommendation of the Board of Directors.

Article 117

An employer shall, upon request by the General Organisation conveyed by registered reply-paid letter, deduct from the wages of the insured person within the attachable or assignable limits under the Labour Law, the sums paid in error to such person by the General Organisation or by any of its field offices, and to transfer them at monthly intervals to the General Organisation at the time and in the manner by which contributions are paid.

Article 118

An employer shall be liable to pay to the General Organisation in additional amount of one dinar for every month of delay in notifying the General Organisation, or any of its field offices, of a worker joining his employ or leaving his service, using the appropriate forms provided. Such additional amount shall be for the period commencing with the expiry date of the time-limit for notification until the date of notifying the General Organisation.

An employer shall also be liable to pay the additional amount provided for in the preceding paragraph to the General Organisation in respect of every case of delay in notifying any employment injury sustained by any of his workers to the police station within twenty-four hours of its occurrence of if such notification is not made in accordance with Article 63.

The additional amount provided for in the two preceding paragraph shall be multiplied by the number of insured persons so affected and the number of the months of delay. A fraction of a month for the purposes of such delay shall be deemed to be a full month.

Article 119

Subject to Article 54, the allowances, compensation, pensions, grants and assistance provided for in this Law shall not be payable if the injury was intentionally caused by the party who stands to benefit by such payments, or if the injury was the result of a criminal act on the part of such beneficiary.
Save for the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the General Organisation shall in all cases pay to the insured person or to his heirs the full entitlements provided for in this Law, as the case may be, without regard to the causes and circumstances of the injury. This rule shall also apply in the case of an employment or non-employment injury for which a third party, other than the employer of the injured worker, is responsible.

An employer shall be under no obligation to pay an allowance or compensation to an insured person who has sustained an employment injury or to his heirs unless the injury has been caused deliberately by the employer or has occurred by reason of his gross error or his failure to abide by the rules relating to the safety and health of the workers. In such cases, the injured person or his heirs shall reserve their full rights to the damages as prescribed by any other law.
In all cases mentioned above, the General Organisation shall pay to the injured or his heirs all rights due from it, and in return, be subrogated the insured person or his heirs as to all rights and actions against the employer or the other persons responsible, within the limits of the amounts paid by it.

Article 120

Officers of the General Organisation designated by the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, shall have access to the work-places during normal working hours to carry out the necessary inquiries and to inspect registers, books, documents, papers, and files relevant to the implementation of the provisions of this Law.

The Government and administrative authorities shall furnish the General Organisation with all information requested arising out of the application of the provisions of this Law.
The competent administrative authorities shall facilitate the task of such officers who shall have the authority to check and report violations thereof.

Article 121

Every officer designated by the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs as an inspector under this Law, shall affirm the following oath before the Minister:-

"I swear by THE ALMIGHTY GOD to discharge my duties honestly and faithfully and not to divulge any industrial or commercial secret which may come to my knowledge in the course of performing my duties, and GOD is a witness to what I have declared."

Such officials shall also keep the trade secrets relating to facts which may come to their knowledge in the course of discharging their duties and under no circumstances shall they divulge such facts or communicate them to any other than the appropriate authorities.

Article 122

Employees and their representatives shall furnish to the officers referred to in the preceding Article all particulars necessary to facilitate their duties, especially the accurate particulars relating to :-

a.the number of workers employed, their names, dates of joining employment, dates of birth and the wages of each;
b. the number of workers leaving their employment, their names, dates of termination of service and the wages of each;
c.the amount of wages paid every month and the nature and method of computation and payment of such wages;
d.the nature of the employer's business, its location and branches if any.

The appropriate authorities of the State especially the Police Stations shall extend to the officers of the General Organisation every assistance required for discharging their duties.

Article 123

Any agreement or settlement which is not in conformity with the provisions of this Law shall be null and void where such agreement or settlement prejudices the rights of the beneficiaries or heirs or which causes the insured person or members of his family to incur additional obligations.

Article 124

The General Organisation shall be required to fulfil all its obligations towards the insured persons and their heirs even if the employer has not participated on their behalf in the General Organisation. The rights shall be assessed in accordance with the provisions herein as long as the employment relationship between the employer and the worker has been established to the satisfaction of the General Organisation.

Where the authenticity of the particulars relating to the period of participation in the social insurance or to the wages are not ascertained by the General Organisation, the pension or compensation shall be rated on the basis of the undisputed duration of service and wages.

Such pension or compensation shall be paid subject to the minimum wages legally established where it is impossible to ascertain the actual rate of pay.

The General Organisation may claim from the employer all the contributions established by this Law, together with interest for delay and the additional amounts payable under the provisions herein.

Article 125

The Minister for Labour and Social Affairs shall, after the Board of Directors has been consulted, determine the system, intervals and method of applying for payment of allowances, compensation and pensions, the paying authority and the payment documents and the intervals of payment.

Article 126

Payments due to the insured, pensioner or his heirs from the General Organisation, may not be attached or renounced except for an alimony debt or debt due to the Organisation subject to a limitation of not more than one-fourth thereof. In the event of a multiplicity of debts, preference shall be afforded the debt for alimony within one-eight, and the remainder for the debts due to the General Organisation.

Article 127

The General Organisation may deduct any amount due, before his death, from the insured person or pensioner from the portions of the heirs within one-fourth thereof. Such deduction shall be made pro-rata.
Persons entrusted with registering marriage documents shall notify the General Organisation of the cases of marriage in which female pensioners are involved. The administrative units of the State, organisations, institutions, associations, companies and employers who employ any of such pensioners or their heirs who are in receipt of pensions under the provisions of this Law, shall notify the Organisation of the name, date of service, rate of pay and pension number of each of such pensioners or beneficiaries employed by them. Such notification shall be made within one month from the date of employment.

Article 128

Every pensioner and every heir or any person in whose name the pension is paid, shall notify the General Organisation of any change in the grounds for entitlement which may lead to the discontinuance, suspension or reduction of the pension. Such notification shall be made within a period of not more than one month from the date of the occurrence of such change.

Article 129

The General Organisation, the insured person, the pensioner or any of his heirs may not dispute the rate of the pension or compensation after the lapse of two years from the date of notification of finally settling the pension or from the date of the payment of the compensation except in the case of re-assessing the pension or compensation by virtue of a final law-court decision and in case of factual errors in the settlement thereof.

Article 130

A worker may request the General Organisation or any of its field offices to furnish him with a statement of his participation period in the social insurance, in the following circumstances :-

  • attainment of the retirement age;
  • termination of his service for any reason;
  • departure from the country even if temporarily;
  • taking up employment not subject to the provisions of this Law.

Such statement shall be provided free of charge. He may also request such statement every five years in other than the above circumstances by payment of a fee to be determined by Order of the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs after agreement of the Board of Directors. Such statement shall not be used except for the purpose for which it has been issued.

Article 131

A Control Committee within the General Organisation shall be established which shall be composed of a chairman and two members. The chairman shall be designated by the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, one of the two members by the Minister for Finance and National Economy and the other by the Bahrain Monetary Agency. The terms of membership of the Committee shall be for two years and shall not be renewable more than twice in succession.
The Committee shall perform the following functions :-

a.supervising the activities of the financial division in the General Organisation;
b.advising on the financial and accounting system and on the accounting policy adopted by the General Organisation;
c. auditing the books of accounts;
d. advising on the annual balance sheet of the General Organisation and its final accounts, before they are presented to the Board of Directors, and ascertaining the correctness and truth of their contents;
e. exercising such other prerogatives as may be entrusted to it by the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs or the Board of Directors.

The Committee shall, at the end of the sixth month of each fiscal year prepare a report giving its observations on the General Organisation's activities during the past six months, and it shall also prepare an annual report at the end of the preceding fiscal year. The reports of the Committee shall be submitted to the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, the Board of Directors and the Director General. The Committee shall be assisted by a number of specialized officials who shall be attached to it. Such officials shall, throughout their assignment to the Committee, be attached to the Chairman of the Committee. The Committee shall comply with the rules of procedure drawn up by it. The remuneration of the Chairman and the members shall be determined by the Minister for Labour and Social Affair upon a recommendation of the Board of Directors.

 

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