Page 325 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

Employment issues at DAPCO 645

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(vii) Question of leave with pay and Provident Fpfid

At the present moment every Mohammedan employee receives
six holidays a year with pay. It is impossible to d emend that
every employee should b e given every Friday off with pay —
I do not think that labourers receive such a concession any- I
v/hore in the world. The Company have had under consideration
for some time a scheme for short yearly leave on full pay for
cooly labour, and I shall continue to press for an early deci­
sion on this. Similarly the Company are considering a Provident

Fund scheme and the local managers suspect that the demand
made in the memorandum of grievances is based on leakages
from their correspondence with their New York Office*, Here
again it is reasonable to press for as early a decision as
possible, for 6uch a scheme is obviously in the Company’s

own interests in ensuring continuity of work on the part of
their employees.
4. On the whole both Belgrave and I were satisfied that
the Company were prepared to givegpnerous consideration to
reasonable suggestions for improving the lot of their employees.
It must not be thought that there is any genuine feeling of

grievance shared by the majority of their employees of all
classes, and employment with the Company is no less popular
among the labouring classes in Bahrain than it used tote,
liven when the ten anna rate was in force there were dozens
/
of applications for e vory^vacancy, and of course care must be
taken not to upset the labour market in Manamah. Nevertheless
Belgrave is already engaged in collecting information on present

day coots of living, Cur main immediate object is to put a
atop to the underground flow of false rumour and c omplaint

designed to unsettle the labouring classes, and with the
information now at our command it should be possible to do
something/-