The rising illness

The rising illness

Bahrain, which is suffering from high rates of absenteeism at work, has now approved a new plan that allows civil servants in the country to take a week off to support ill family members.

October 20, 2009 2:16 by Aarti Nagraj

Civil servants in Bahrain will now be able to legally take one week off if their immediate family members are ill, according to a new plan approved by the Shura Council in the country, reports Gulf Daily News. The original plan proposed that they get a full month off, but MPs in the country reduced it to a week.

“No one here thinks that accompanying a sick relative is unnecessary, but having a month as proposed earlier by the (Shura) Council is too much and would lead to disruptions at the workplace,” Nasser al-Mubarak, the Shura Council services committee secretary said during the session on Monday.

“A lot of parents already skip work and take it from their annual leave whenever their children have chronic diseases or are set to undergo an operation, so in reality civil servants take time off anyway – but we are here ensuring that they are doing so through proper procedures.”

The Council specified the leave had to be approved by a medical commission, and that it was only applicable if an immediate relative was sick.

“In severe cases, the time off could be extended to a month considering that treatment could be abroad rather than in Bahrain, which could take a lot of time. But that too should be ordered by a medical commission,” said al-Mubarak.

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Tags: absenteeism, Bahrain, family, government, public sector, sick leave, work