"Bahrain begins the final phase of its "Wage Protection System," 17 Jan 2021

Bahrain’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) officially launched the third and final phase of its Wage Protection System (WPS)...

... the number of [employers] who are committed to paying through the system remains remarkably low... LMRA CEO Jamal Abdulaziz Al Alawi said that “the commitment to pay wages through the system was approximately 61%,” adding that the LMRA tries to “communicate with employers directly and continuously to ensure full compliance...”

The low enrollment rate can be attributed to weak enforcement mechanisms, which undercut the purpose and utility of the automated system... penalties against employers are weak, reducing the incentive for compliance...

[The WPS] must be linked to an insurance scheme or a fund businesses pay into, calculated per sponsored worker. When employers default on payment, this fund should automatically kick in. The system as it exists flags defaulters based on certain metrics, and involves a grievance redressal process that may be long-drawn out...

The system itself, though digitised, has certain loopholes that are regularly exploited by employers. There is no automatic calculation of valid deductions, and a percentage of non-payment of total outgoing is often overlooked. So employers either deduct without cause or don’t pay a percentage of workers every month, dodging any red flags that might arise... an online system that workers can access to confirm if they’ve received all of their owed wages on salary day would help tackle this problem more effectively.