Laborers call for midday work ban to be extended

After the Ministry of Labor introduced a two-month midday work ban last year, to protect the Kingdom’s foreign workers from the scorching summer heat, many workers have said that it simply is not enough. They are calling on authorities to extend the ban.
“Even though the summer only officially begins next month, we have already worked in extremely hot temperatures,” said Bahar Ibrahim, a Pakistani construction worker.
He added that the Ministry of Labor should extend the current two-month ban scheduled to begin from July 1 through August 31 to three months, allowing it to begin from at least June 1.
“I have already experienced heat exhaustion and have been dehydrated twice this month from working in the sun,” he said. Temperatures yesterday across the Kingdom, according to data from the Saudi Meteorology and Environment Agency, reached between 38 degrees Celsius (110.4 F) in Jeddah to 45 degrees Celsius (113 F) in Riyadh.
Another issue with the ban is that it has not strictly been enforced others say.
“Some business owners ignore the ban and force us to work in the heat or be fired,” Paresh Patel, a maintenance worker for a Saudi contracting company said, adding that he thinks the timings of the ban from 12 to 3 p.m. should also be extended until 4 p.m.
Due to the massive number of complaints on the issue last summer, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) filed a petition with the Labor Ministry, asking them to enforce the midday work break.
“We discussed that we had many cases and complaints about companies forcing their employees to work in the sun during the banned hours,” Muflah Al Qatani, President of the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) told Arab News in a previous interview, adding that the rights group has been monitoring the situation.
Arab News tried numerous times to contact the Ministry of Labor for comment on whether the work ban could be extended, but our calls went unanswered.
According to established Ministry of Labor guidelines, any companies found in violation of the ban could face fines of up to SR10,000 per worker or, in some cases, could be shut down for 30 days.
Laborers forced to work in the sun during ban hours are encouraged to register complaints at [phone] or visit the NSHR website at www.nshr.org.sa