Page 433 - Records of Bahrain (7) (ii)_Neat

Organisation of the labour force, 1957-58 823

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Thero wqb no staff to. carry out inspection of premises
subject to tho Ordinances. Tho appointment and training of
ouitable men for the work I estimated would bo difficult.
Tho principle of impartiality, of status (tho powers of
inspeotora are considerable under the Powers of Inspection
Ordinance), and qualifications would make it vory difficult to
find suitable oandidateo for the posts, It was estimated
before my arrival that it would probably need 4 inspectors to
carry out this work.
Shortly after ray arrival I found there were other Ordinances
which had been drafted and had passed the Labour Advisory Council,
although they wero not yet in force. These were concerned,
firstly, with a minimum wage for all unskilled, or coolie,
labourers of Re.7*50 per day. There was an Ordinance whioh
provided, with safeguards, for 100?S employment of Bahraini
unskilled labour and yet another, which, again with safeguards,
provided for tho replacement of forolgn workers, who beaamc
redundant or who loft their work,. with Bahrainis, Even though
none of these Ordinances has yet oome into foroe, the proposed
minimumiwago law, laudable on its face value, has received
serious adverse criticism as being ultimately likely to bring
unemployment and hardship.
I roooived muoh valuable advioe and assistance from a
number of Government offioialo and private individuals and formed
an opinion from these that tho main task initially would have to
bo directed at correcting bod conditions of wages and long hours
of work and that safe conditions and welfare would have to. bo
tackled at a later date.
At this stage I wrote out a number of reoonmendations on
the principles of labour inspection, the organisation of office
work, the appointment of suitable inspectors (two in the first
instance) and prepared a draft code of Regulations which required
all employers to register at the Commissioner of Labour’s office.
The latter I considered of the groatest importance and urgency
if wo were to be able to assess the full scope of the work and
deploy our resources accordingly. Only after registration of
such employers could we efficiently start systematic Inspection,
Unfortunately, after nearly 5 months, such registration has not
yet been required, and tho inspection which has been sturted has
had to suffer from the great handicap of not knowing where we
are going and from the occasional waste of time interviewing
many persons to whom the Ordinances do not apply.
In the middle of February, without my knowledge, I was
informod that 2 inspectors had been appointed, From my Buboo-
quent olooo connection with these two young men, I have found
them well educated, keen to learn and in my opinion, well suited
for Labour Inspection in Bahrain. Despite my advioe to the
contrary, however, I have noticed that they are treated as of
the olerioal grade and as ouch are paid what I consider is a
totally Inadequate salary, even as inspectors Btill in training.
Their salary is Rs.450/- a month, with annual increments of
R0.2V-. They have no contracts, neither have they any details
of pension or gratuity at tho end of their oareors. They have
had no advioo as to whether they are entitled to any official
travelling allowance. I am afraid that their effectiveness in
futuro will be adversely affected by this statuo whioh they have
been given. Joint inspection work on a small scale was started
with thorn on 22.2.60 and continued in this way until after

Ramadhan /
CONFIDENTIAL