Moonlighting workers risking their lives for cash

Workers are supposed to rest at the hottest part of the day during the midday work ban in most GCC countries. Photo: Getty.

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Labourers who “moonlight” by working in other jobs during the hottest part of the day while on their enforced midday work break are risking their lives, says a medical expert in Bahrain.

Nineteen workers have been treated for heat exhaustion at Salmaniya Medical Complex in the last three days, chief of medical staff Dr Mohammed Amin Al Awadhi told the Gulf Daily News yesterday.

He also said that employers were sending their workers home between noon and 4pm while the midday work ban, designed to protect outdoor workers from the heat of the day and reduce workplace injuries by reducing the risk of heat stroke or heat exhaustion, was in place. But some were slipping out to other jobs to earn extra money.

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"We have had cases where, after leaving their places of work, people have been washing cars, watering gardens and running errands on bicycles, only to go back to work at 4pm," said Dr Al Awadhi.

Some of the 19 workers had admitted they regularly engage in additional work during the midday work ban.

The work ban was introduced to protect workers health and, while many companies are complying with laws, Dr Al Awadhi says it is the workers themselves that were risking their lives by not resting when they were supposed to.