Outdoor workers in Qatar back to midday work in spite of the unbearable heat
While we are impatiently counting days in our air conditioned rooms for winter’s grand arrival, the annual ban on summer midday outdoor work has been lifted in Qatar.
The ban which prevailed from June 15th till the 31st of August had permitted the midday outdoor workers to work for not more than 5 hours in the mornings and had forbidden them to work between 11:30 AM and 3:00 PM.
But now that the ban is lifted, the workers will have to labour out in the scorching, melting heat.
However, certain companies claim to be giving an extra break to their workers or have extended their midday break, while allowing the workers to stop working whenever they feel sickly.
But the fact remains that heat in and across the country is turning out to be intolerable. Almost every day the temperature is above 40C and there have been some days when the heat climbs up to even 55C.
Although reports about heat strokes have been lesser than the last summer, it would still be extremely difficult for anybody to work under such searing conditions.
Any thoughts?
The answer is simple, work split shifts. However, that would increase the overheads for the companies and thus not viable.