Annual report / State of Brunei.

Date:
[1953]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report / State of Brunei. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/220 (page 14)
    Welfare Committees: Welfare Committees offering a friendly and efficient channel of communication between the workers and Company Manage¬ ment have been in operation for some years past. Towards the end of 1953, preparations were made to hold “free” elections for the Labour Force Welfare Committee in Seria and Kuala Belait: hitherto, representatives on the Committee were nominated by the Company. (In point of fact, this election was held within the first few days of 1954, and was extremely successful. The Labour Force showed great interest in the matter, and more than one hundred nominations for office were received.) Housing: The oil company’s programme for the provision of permanent houses for all its employees continued to make great progress during 1953. Since the end of the war it has been the Company’s policy to give a priority to the construction of houses for Labour Force and Regional Staff: a satisfactory rate of progress having been reached by the beginning of 1953, some extra effort was directed towards building homes for Senior Staff families. The bringing to bear of extra contract labour and an augmented amount of equipment ensured that the rate of completion of Senior Staff houses was speeded up without in any way diminishing progress on Labour Force and Regional Staff housing. Safety: An energetic campaign against road and industrial accidents was continued and augmented during 1953 in the oilfields. A special Safety Department was created and enlarged during the year, and by the end of 1953 these measures were beginning to show noticeable effect. Education: In addition to subsidising the attendance of children of its workers at non-Company schools in Seria and Kuala Belait, the oil company runs its own school for the children of Senior Staff