On-site accidents dropped by 50% during July and August in 2007 compared to the previous year, says the Ministry of Health.
Bahrain’s Labour Ministry will have around 50 inspectors monitoring construction sites across the Kingdom from today looking for violations of the midday summer work ban.
The ban on working outdoors between midday and 4pm came into effect in Bahrain today and will run until the end of August.
Companies that ignore the ban will face fines between US $132 and $795 (BHD 50-300) per worker involved. Last year around 500 companies, involving nearly 2,000 workers, were taken to court for flouting the rules.
A Labour Ministry Occupational Health and Safety official told the Gulf Daily News (GDN) that he expects this number to drop.
"Now that this is the third year in a row the ban is being enforced, we would imagine most of the employers are aware of the issue," he told the paper.
The official said, according to reports and their meetings with local companies, the majority of the companies were happy to comply with the outdoor work ban.
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"Many companies will now start work early and go on till late in the night after the four-hour break, while many others will have a straight working shift until noon," he said.
The official said according to the Health Ministry statistics, on-site accidents dropped by 50% during July and August in 2007 when compared with 2006 and the figure was even less in 2008.
"We have already organised workshops for health and safety officers of various construction companies on how to deal with the summer heat and avoid accidents at worksites," he said.
"This shows the ban is having a positive effect," he said.
Last week, the GDN reported that Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) had seen a steady increase in patients with heat stroke, with around 10 patients a day in the week leading up to the ban.
Doctors earlier reported a sharp fall in heat stroke and head exhaustion cases at the hospital in July and August since the ban started being enforced.
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