Health issues and accidents are part of work. Co-operation of the staff and a good health policy helped tackle these issues. The 27th part of a series describing the unknown triumphs and travails of doing international business

As a matter of government policy in the Gulf, medical benefit was free to all people in the country.  In fact, even if a transit passenger in the airport fell sick, all medical facilities were extended to him/her by the government. We were living in an ideal society.

It was after a long time, the ministry of health made a nominal charge when a person went to get medical attention; the medicines were always supplied free.

It did not matter if X-rays had to be taken, surgeries done or the patient had to be hospitalized.  All these were taken care by the government.

However, in order to ensure all the legal residents were getting this benefit, the government introduced an ID card system and an annual payment, of something like $70; an entrance or admission fee for each registration was imposed, and other medical benefits were given free, as a result. This was introduced so as to apprehend the “illegals”, who had somehow managed to enter the country. Some of these illegal immigrants were caught in this process, but they were given the medical attention that was required and deported once the recovery took place.

Prior to this, during the time of Gulf Industries, a few months earlier, we had our own company doctor visiting the plant and taking care of the sick. But, a few months later, after we began our operations at Finetex, the ministry through the Free Zone gave a special ID to all employees for a fee of Dh100 ($30) with all other conditions remaining the same. They opened a clinical facility in the Jebel Ali area itself, which was about 10 minutes drive from our plant. Of course, in case the patient required special attention or surgery, etc, they had to be taken to Dubai city, some 50 km away.

Fortunately, we did not face any such major trouble, except one day, just as I had come into the office and was on my inspection round the plant, I heard a huge cry of pain and commotion. I rushed to the spot, only to realize that the girl doing the snap pins for the denim coats we were making, had the tack pin in her fingers and there was blood all over the place!

In less than a minute we had her carried to my car with a couple of girls, including a supervisor, and we rushed to the main gate, where we had to stop for inspection of our car boot. All of them knew me and without literally stopping (we had speed breakers there), I slowed down, gave them a shout “emergency run for hospital” and rushed through, and without waiting I picked up my speed. As I passed a cruising police vehicle on the opposite lane, I shouted ‘mustashfa’ (meaning hospital), and had no difficulty in reaching the main hospital in about 30-35 minutes.  Perera had already given them a call that an injured girl was on the way!

An hour later, after getting the medical attention, required stitches, etc, I took them for lunch in Karamah before returning back to the hospital a little after 2 pm. The girl took rest in the canteen, which had resting facilities for sick girls (our sick bay), and later on went to the camp. She was back to work couple of days later and was assigned a lighter job, for the time being.

On another occasion, in Muscat I had a different rescue mission to perform in course of my duty. It was a Sunday and some of the girls who wanted to go to the church were getting ready and our van would make a couple of trips for this purpose. I was relaxing in my study, from where I could hear the driver honking, presumably to rush up the balance of the girls to hurry up. They would be back after about an hour and half in two or three lots.

I think it was Kumari or Chandra, who came running down and knocked my door to say, “We have an accident in the floor”. When I ran after her, we found a girl unconscious. She had got up from her bunker bed and had been hit by the fan on her head; there was blood tricking down her face! Francisca was already holding the girl.

We carried her on to my car and drove through the city to the emergency section of the main hospital, which was about 9-10 km from our plant. Nanayakara, the supervisor in charge of production had already called the hospital and explained to them about the head injury.

I think we had to stay for about two hours; there was a gash, not a deep wound, and I believe they had to stitch her up and cut her hair up. After the treatment when we returned back I realized that this was one fan that somehow had escaped the attention of the electrical contractors.  

Fortunately in our group, except for the above two instances, we did not have any other incidents affecting the health of our staff. They took care of themselves, worked long hours and kept themselves active throughout their stay. Most of them renewed their contracts; a few of them got married, took couple of months off, but returned back on duty. 

There was only major problem we faced in our plant. Our supplies of heavy duty jackets for winter use in Canada had been well received and we had received large contract from a leading importer named Monarch. While this was under production, we had an outbreak of mumps and chickenpox in the area, and a large number of' our staff were under heavy weather, When we reported this matter to them. It was in good spirit they extended the L/C, saying “We are used to snow storms and floods, but your chicken beat us this time...” In spite of this situation, we managed to ship the goods, practically on the last date of the original L/C.

All this was possible due to the high morale and the teamwork displayed by our staff.

(AK Ramdas has worked with the Engineering Export Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce and was associated with various committees of the Council. His international career took him to places like Beirut, Kuwait and Dubai at a time when these were small trading outposts. From being the advisor to exporters, he took over the mantle of a trader, travelled far and wide, and switched over to setting up garment factories and then worked in the US. He can be contacted at [email protected].)