232 work sites closed in June for violating working hours norm

The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs, represented in Labor Inspection Department, has carried out intensive inspection campaigns during June, with the aim of ensuring that companies comply with Ministerial Resolution No. (17) for the year 2021, regarding the necessary precautions to protect workers from heat stress in open work sites during the summer period. The Ministry said that the field visits carried out by its inspectors on the work sites during the period from June 1 to 30, resulted in the closure of 232 work sites for a period of three days, noting that the most of the violating companies work in the contracting sector in different sites. Under the rules, workers cannot work outside between 10:00am and 3:30pm from 1 June to 15 September. The decision obliges companies and institutions that have workplaces under direct sunlight to set a schedule specifying the daily working hours in accordance with the provisions of the decision, and display it at a place that is easy for all workers to see and for the Ministry inspectors to observe during their inspection visits to the workplace, in addition to providing air-conditioned spaces for the workers' comfort, providing chilled drinking water and light clothing, and giving them rest periods at different times in order to protect them from the risk of heat stress. The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs called on all companies in different sectors to respect the Ministerial Decision in order to avoid the workplace's partial or total closure.