Table 5 showing Railway Contracts By Religion in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 777. Chapter XVII: Labour And Wages: Section 8: The Employment of Arab And Jewish Labor By Government Departments

CHAPTER XVII.

of labour and commands a relatively low daily wage. An arrangement is in force whereby a J'ewish firm of contractors (Solel-Boneh) supply a proportion of the labour. At present the firm cannot produce sufficient labour to meet requirements. Stevedoring aboard ships is performed by Arab and Jewish firms who employ their own labour-the Jewish firms not infrequently employing Arabs. Lighterage services are similarly undertaken by Arab and Jewish private contractors.

107. Both sections of the Jaffa port have been relatively idle during the war. At the southern section (Jaffa) the employment is exclusively Arab, and at the northern section (Tel Aviv) the employment is exclusively Jewish.

108. The following details of contracts awarded are in respect of the Railways Administration as a whole, i.e. inclusive of ports:Table 5.

NON-JEWS I Jnws
Financial I
l"EAR Number or Amount Number of I Amount
contracts contracts
No. I £P. No. £P.
1942/43 G I 65,000 7 75,000
1943/44 2 63,000 2 75,000
1944/ 45 3 63,000 13 70,000
- DEPARTMENT OF POSTS, TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES.

109. A large proportion of the casual labour employed by this Department is required in connection with engineering work such as digging trenches for telephone cables. The Department's choice in the recruitment of casual labour on out-door work of this nature is limited by the type of rural district in which the work is being done, since labour is recruited locally when available. Non-Jewish casual labour is fairly readily obtainable, but Jewish casual labour is not easily attracted to such work; hence the preponderance of non-Jewish workers engaged thereon.

110. The following table shows the employment of casual labour during three financial years :-

Table 6.

I NON-JEWISH LABO"" JEWISH LABOUR
FINANCIAL YEAR No. of man- I Amount of No. of man• I Amount of
days worked wages days worked wages
No. £P. No. £P.
1942/43 152,487 35,741 G0,565 21,668
1943/44 115,267 42,539 39,958 19,356
1944/ 45 83, 741 36,384 31,488 16, 759

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