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The rising temperatures have prompted many “labour-friendly” managers in the construction industry to reschedule working hours for their workers. |
These changes are being explored keeping the convenience of workers in mind. As some of the managers said, the workers would otherwise be “terribly exhausted” even before the daily mid-day break, put in place by the Labour Ministry to protect them from the summer heat, starts at 11:30am.
Gulf Times has learnt that while workers at many sites are required to resume their outdoor duties after the mid-day break, some employers have been “good enough” to give rest to their workers after their morning activities.
“As our workers have no complaints with starting their work as early as possible in the morning, work at our sites gets over by 11am,” said an engineer who is managing a construction firm involved in a number of infrastructure development activities.
Sources also told this newspaper that workers start their duties at a number of outdoor sites as early as 2am. As they do not have work in the post-noon session, these workers get adequate rest for long periods and resume duties only in the wee hours the next day.
A manager said while labour productivity is “usually not that good during the summer months”, such experiments have helped them maintain a relatively better pace of work so that companies are able to complete their projects before the deadline ends.
Agreeing that revised timings have been beneficial to both the companies and the workers, one of the managers said enquiries with some labourers also indicated that they were willing to work in the evening - from 6pm - so that they could complete the work by 3am.
“However, additional expenses incurred on diesel and renting industry equipment at high rates are stopping smaller companies from deploying workers in the evenings,” said a project manager at a construction site in Abu Hamour.
While there are some outdoor works, like tarring of roads, that need to be undertaken before noon, managers of some companies feel it will help their operations as well as the workforce if the authorities allow outdoor duties to start immediately after midnight, at least on sites located away from residential areas.
25 new labour inspectors take oath
Some 25 labour inspectors of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MLSA) took oath yesterday before HE the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Dr Abdulla Saleh Mubarak al-Khulaifi.
“This comes in the context of our efforts to ensure the full application of the provisions of the labour law,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the number of inspectors in the ministry has reached nearly 230.
The ministry affirmed its ongoing effort to develop the labour market by employing new labour inspectors who will carry out inspection on irregularities and preserve the rights of workers and employers.
