Social Insurance Law
PART 4: MINISTERIAL ORDERS
MINISTERIAL ORDER NO. 17/INSURANCE DATED 26.4.1977 CONCERNING REGULATIONS AND PROCEDURES TO BE FOLLOWED BY THE GENERAL ORGANISATION FOR SOCIAL INSURANCE TO SAFEGUARD ITS RIGHTS TOWARDS EMPLOYERS AND THEIR CLAIMS MADE THEREUNDER
The Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, After referring to law on Social Insurance promulgated by Decree Law No. 24/1976; And to Articles 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 104, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116 and 118 of the aforementioned law on Social Insurance; And to Ministerial Orders issued in compliance therewith; And to the Law of Civil and Commercial Procedures promulgated by Decree Law No. 12/1971; And with the approval of the Board of Directors of the General Organisation for Social Insurance at its ninth session on 20.4.1977; Hereby orders :
Article 1
The insurance contributions, provided for in the law on Social Insurance promulgated by Decree Law No. 24/1976, which are due in each month from each employer subject to the said Law as from 1st October, 1976 or from the date where the conditions shall have been fulfilled as required under the said Law, shall be deemed due to the General Organisation for Social Insurance during the first 15 days of the month following that for which the contributions are due according to the provisions of Article 27 of the said Law.
Article 2
Each employer, subject to the above-mentioned Law and who has failed to contribute to the insurance for all or some of his workers or who has not paid the monthly insurance contributions on the basis of the real wages in accordance with the elements of wages as in the first Article of Ministerial Order No. 4/Insurance issued on 25.8.1976, shall be committed, under Article 29 of the said Law on Social Insurance, to pay an additional amount to the General Organisation for Social Insurance, at the rate of 20% of the value of contributions which he has failed to pay. These additional amounts and the original contributions due are bound for payment to the General Organisation for Social Insurance immediately on being claimed in writing from the employer without any executive order in compliance with the said Article 29.
If the contribution has not been made on the due date, a 5% interest shall be levied from the employer for the contributions due for delay of each month or any part thereof, in which event, the employer shall be required to pay such interest along with the original contribution to the General Organisation. They shall be deemed to be due without an order from the Execution Court, as soon as a claim in writing is served to him by registered post with an acknowledgement slip, in accordance with Article 31 of the said Law.
Article 3
Each employer who defaults in notifying the said General Organisation concerning the employment of a worker or the termination of his services, in the form prescribed for either case, shall be required to pay another additional sum of BD. 1 for each month of delay in serving such notice. The said additional sum shall be equal to the number of insured workers on whom the employer, subject to the said Law, delays to serve notice and shall also be equal to the number of the months of such delay, and any part of a month shall be deemed to be a whole month in terms of Article 118 of the Law.
Article 4
The monthly insurance contributions, indicated in the said Law for the branch of insurance against old age, disability and death as well was the insurance branch against employment accidents and which are incumbent upon the employer under the Law on Social Insurance and those who have failed to register themselves and their workers at the General Organisation or those who have not paid the insurance contributions due or have paid them upon the basis of unreal wages for all their workers or some of them, or who have not paid the difference due to the General Organisation or the additional amounts indicated in the Law, shall be calculated on the basis of the statements shown in the forms submitted by them to the Organisation or stated in the books, records and documents kept by them and which are indicated in Articles 99, 100, 101 of the Law on Social Insurance.
Where it is discovered by the General Organisation that an employer has failed to submit the forms indicated in the foregoing paragraph or has submitted them in an incomplete manner or has not submitted them at all or has not maintained books, records or documents as indicated in the foregoing paragraph, the Organisation shall calculate the contributions on a real basis or on the basis of its investigations. If the Organisation fails to calculate the contributions: it shall do so on the basis of its own investigations through its inspectors.
Article 5
The determination by the General Organisation for Social Insurance, whenever required, of the extent of the employer's commitment towards it, shall take place through its own investigations or in accordance with the findings of its inspector's investigations. In this matter, it or they may resort to the following in particular :-
The General Organisation for Social Insurance shall despatch a registered letter with an acknowledgement slip to the employer regarding the contributions and amounts which must be paid to it within 15 days at the latest from the date of the receipt of the said letter.
Article 6
The General Organisation for Social Insurance shall notify the employer of the amount of the insurance contributions calculated in accordance with the two foregoing Articles as well as the amount of the additional sums and interest due in accordance with the Law on Social Insurance by a registered letter with an acknowledgment slip to the employer's place of work asking him to pay the amounts due within the 15-day period of grace indicated in the last paragraph of the foregoing Article.
Should the employer object to this claim made by the General Organisation within 30 days of the date of receiving the notice mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, the Organisation shall reply to the said objection within 30 days of the date of receiving it indicating therein its acceptance or rejection. In the latter case, reasons for its rejection shall be stated.
Article 7
In the event of his objection being rejected and if he is dissatisfied with the reasons thereof as notified to him by virtue of the foregoing Article 6, the employer is entitled to request the General Organisation for Social Insurance by a registered letter to submit the subject of the dispute to the Dispute Settlement Committee provided for in Article 104 of the Law on Social Insurance within 30 days of the date of receiving the notice sent by the General Organisation regarding the rejection of his objection, provided that the grounds of his dissatisfaction leading him to request the submission of the dispute to the said Committee shall have been stated in his letter.
Article 8
The Dispute Settlement Committee provided for in the foregoing Article may summon a representative of each of the two parties to the dispute to substantiate its grounds before it. The Committee shall convey its decision to each of the two parties by a registered letter with an acknowledgment slip not later than two weeks from the date of its delivery. The reasoning behind the decision taken shall be formally stated.
The Committee shall maintain a register in which it shall enter in order all disputes submitted to it and its decisions with respect to each of them shall be signed by the Committee's Chairman and members.
Article 9
Where the Committee's decision as referred to in the foregoing Article agrees with the employer's viewpoint on the dispute and if 30 days elapsed from the date of the receipt of the registered letter referred to in the aforementioned Article, and there has been no appeal lodged against the said decision to the Higher Civil Court by the General Organisation for Social Insurance, the aforementioned Organisation shall immediately give effect to the said decision after the lapse of the said period of time.
Article 10
Where the decision of the Dispute Settlement Committee is in agreement with the viewpoint of the General Organisation for Social Insurance and 30 days have elapsed from the date of the employer's receipt of the registered letter containing the notice referred to in the aforementioned Article 8 and the employer or his representative has not appealed against the said decision during the appealable period to the Higher Civil Court, the decision shall be final and binding and the employer shall execute it immediately within 15 days of the claim having been made to him when the award has already been made of the amount due to the General Organisation after being modified, on the basis of the period during which the payment of the amounts due, shall have been delayed.
Article 11
Where the period of grace allowed to the employer for paying the amounts due to the Organisation, according to the provisions of the foregoing Article, without making the contributions and the amounts due to the above- mentioned General Organisation according to the notice served on him, the Organisation shall prepare lists of the amounts due for payment to it, submit them to the Minister for Labour and Social Affairs for official approval and the said lists shall then be officially sealed by the General Organisation for Social Insurance to render them official documents to enable the judge of the Execution Court to pass an order of distraint as security for the amounts due.
Article 12
The lists referred to in the foregoing Article shall be prepared in one original and two true copies in which the following, in particular, shall be shown :-
The General Organisation for Social Insurance shall submit these lists and two copies of each of them to the judge of the Execution Court for the issue of the judicial distraint on the properties of the employer who is indebted to the above-mentioned General Organisation, and the said lists shall be endorsed with the executory forms obtainable from the clerks section of the Execution Court and the same shall be signed by the judge of the said Court and stamped by its seal thereon.
The above-mentioned Organisation shall, through its own representatives, cause to be distrained all or any properties of the employer so indebted and it shall state the particulars of the distrained items together with their descriptions, their approximate value, place and date of distraint. All these shall be written down in a Process-verbal and a copy thereof shall be delivered to the employer or his legal representative or to whomsoever he deputes and the organisation shall furnish the employer against whom distraint has been applied with a copy of the Order of distraint within 8 days, at the most, from the date of the such distraint. The General Organisation for Social Insurance shall lodge the case before the Higher Civil Court within the 8 days, as stated in the foregoing paragraph, for a declaration that the debt is due and the distraint is valid.
Article 13
Where the employer referred to in the foregoing two Articles 10 and 12 wishes to settle amicably the amounts claimed from him and if he pays them in one instalment, the distraint shall immediately be withdrawn. If he wishes, in writing or by registered letter, to pay the amounts due to the above-mentioned Organisation by instalments, after adjusting them by adding whatever amounts due thereto on the condition that the said authorization shall state the prescribed 5% rate of interest per annum along with the further promise that the period of payment shall not exceed double the period which has elapsed from the date when the first insurance contribution shall have become due until the date of the issue of the resolution of the Committee referred to in the above Article 8. The application for payments on instalments shall be submitted to the Organisation within the 15-day period of grace as shown in the above Article 10.
The above-mentioned General Organisation shall cause to be withdrawn the distraint on the items gradually within the framework of the instalments which shall have been paid until the entire withdrawal of the distraint on the completion of the entirety of the payments due to the General Organisation by the employer.
Article 14
Where the General Organisation for Social Insurance or the employer appeals against the resolution of the Dispute Settlement Committee to the Higher Civil Court, either party is bound to give effect to the court decision on the subject of appeal.
Where the said decision is in favour of the General Organisation, the employer shall have to pay all the amounts due in one instalment after adjusting these dues by the said Organisation till the date of maturity.
It is a right of the employer to ask in writing for payment of the amounts due to the General Organisation, in instalments as set out in paragraph one of above-mentioned Article 13.
The organisation, on its part, decide with regard to payment by instalments, on its own terms and conditions and in accordance with the provisions of the above-mentioned Article, if the reasons for the employer's inability to pay the amounts due, all at once, are worthy of consideration.
Article 15
In consequence of the decision of the Higher Civil Court, where the employer refrains from paying the amounts due to the General Organisation for Social Insurance in a lump sum of if he violates the terms and conditions attaching to payment by instalment under the order issued in accordance with the foregoing Articles 13 and 14, the General Organisation shall apply for compulsory execution with respect to items under distraint in accordance with the rules and provisions stipulated in the Law of Civil and Commercial Procedure.
Article 16
All dates fixed in this order shall end on the last day of each such date and if the last day falls on a public holiday, it shall be carried over to the following day.
Article 17
Without prejudice to the rights of the General Organisation for Social Insurance under this Order, it shall invoke the implementation of the penalties provided for in the law on Social Insurance against the offending employer.
Article 18
This Order shall be published in the Official Gazette and it shall come into effect from the date of its publication.
Essa bin Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa
Minister for Labour and Social Affairs