Wages in Railroad and Ports in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 776. Chapter XVII: Labour And Wages: Section 8: The Employment of Arab And Jewish Labor By Government Departments

CHPATER XVII.

Table 3.

Non-Jewish WORKERS

JEWISH WORKERS

Number of man days; man-days

worked wages

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FINANCIAL YEAR Number of Amount of
man-days
worked wages
No. - £P.
1942/4~ 512,783 101,648
1943/44 296,188 95,483
1944/45 182,336 56,J06 27 8

The Railways Administration does not employ casual labour for regular maintenance work and the figures given represent labour employed for special works of a capital nature or to augment working gangs to deal with seasonal work, such as flooding and stand-storms. The figures relate to the railway as a whole; most of the Arab labour would be employed in exclusively Arab districts. Jews are not attracted by ii1e rates of pay offered. During the war years no Jews were available for casual labour.

104. The relevant figures* for Haifa port are as follows :
Table 4.

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NON-JEWISH WORKERS JEWISH WORKERS
FINANCIAL I\ umber of Number of
YEAR man-days Amount of man-days Amount of
worked wages worked wages
-~o.- -:£1> - No. £P.
1942/43 275,000 101,652 21,600 14,711
1943/44 240,000 89,211 9,GOO 8,110
1944/45 125,000 47,066 28,800 24,706
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105. The number of porters employed directly by the Ports Administration is at present about 1,350 men. In a busy month the earnings of unskilled labourers amount to about £P.ll, those of skilled labourers to about £P.25. The number of labourers employed by contractors on ship repairs, launches services, lighterage, boat building and repairing, transport, stevedoring, etc. is some 1,400 men, at wages varying between £P.20 and £P.37 per month. These particulars are approximate averages and subject to considerable fluctuations dependent on the volume of shipping and cargo passing through the port, and based on information obtained from various sources, and information which is understood to have been mainly estimated.

Labourers employed by the Royal Navy, the Army and the establishments of the Iraq Petroleum Company in the port are not included in the above figures.

106. The bulk of the cargo handling ashore is undertaken by the ports authority by direct employment of labour. During the war this has mostly come from the Houranis, It is a poor type
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* Approximations based on averages of representative days of employment.

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