LABOUR inspectors have recorded 61 violations as part of 2,962 field visits conducted last year.
The field visits to 2,778 firms from January to October last year was done by teams from the Labour and Social Development Ministry, which yesterday said that the main focus was on construction sites, industrial fields and labour camps.
The firms visited employed a combined 121,347 workers – of which 26,118 were Bahraini and 95,229 were expatriates.
A total of 735 inspection visits were also conducted from January to November last year, which included 585 visits to worksites and 70 visits to labour camps based on a routine inspection or a submitted complaint.
“Bahrain is witnessing a great and diversified urban development in establishing commercial and industrial projects which has contributed to the increase in the number of expatriate workers which required an increase in the need for labour housing,” said Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan in a statement yesterday.
“To ensure that labour housing, which is monitored by the ministry, conforms with safety and security specification the ministry has conducted routine visits to these camps in all governorates to ensure the safety of its occupants.”
He added that 56 violations of Bahrain’s outdoor work ban during the summer were recorded in 2019, resulting in 99.5per cent compliance by firms.
A total of 11,235 field inspections were conducted
during July and August 2019, when outdoor work is banned between midday and 4pm, and resulted in 56 violations involving 148 workers.
The minister also said that a total of 270 worksite accidents were registered until November last year, out of which 15 were fatal and 90 accidents resulted in serious injuries.
He said seven of the deaths occurred at construction sites, while a total of 255 labour accidents were reported, majority of which were in the construction field (99) and manufacturing industry (69).
He said based on investigations most of the accidents happened due to failure of employers to provide occupational health and safety requirements on site.
“Within the ministry’s monitoring role to ensure the stability of the labour market, we have received a total of 10,865 requests for various services such as legal assistance, enquiries about dismissals and private sector law until August last year,” added Mr Humaidan.
“We have resolved 56.6pc of the complaints received completely while in other cases the parties in the conflict were alerted that if an amicable solution is not reached the matter will be referred to the labour courts.
“The number of collective labour complaints reached 26 and only one was referred to the Collective Labour Dispute Resolution Board.”
&uuid=(email))