UAE's Construction Worker Issues

[GoDubai!]

Originally Posted by DUBAI

No they were not!

there is no overtime on that site anyhow.

OMG, no overtime on the site? You mean instead of paying fifty cents per hour the company might have to pay seventy-five cents. Boy, that could make them go bankrupt!

[DiggerD21]

Signed.
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[DUBAI]

Originally Posted by GoDubai!

OMG, no overtime on the site? You mean instead of paying fifty cents per hour the company might have to pay seventy-five cents. Boy, that could make them go bankrupt!

I meant.. this project has more than enough workers to staff the site 24/7, without any need for them to call in anyone to work extra hours.

why is pay an issiue? i suppose you would have told them to stay in the sub continent where they would be lucky to earn half what they get in dubai.

[malec]

They should be paid according to Dubai standards not their own countries standards (of course taking into account free accomodation, etc). For example, if someone from some poor African country came to Ireland and found work, should he get paid 20 times less than the rest of us just because he comes from a poor country, even though he'd be getting more than he'd ever dream in his own country. While you might be able to buy quite a bit of stuff for $10 in the place the workers come from, you wouldn't be able to buy the same amount of stuff in other places like Dubai

[AltinD]

That is Dubai's standart.

[dubaiflo]

true, malec this does not work, it wouldn't work anywhere.

why do you think all the big companies leave their industrial western countries, to invest in factories in asia or south america or africa.

it is pretty much the same with dubai's construction workers.

also, of course they could buy more for 10$ in their home country, but is this a reason to pay them 100$ in Dubai, if they get free accomodation, food and healthcare.

always assuming they get the above and their money is paid in time.

[GoDubai!]

Originally Posted by dubaiflo

true, malec this does not work, it wouldn't work anywhere.

why do you think all the big companies leave their industrial western countries, to invest in factories in asia or south america or africa.

it is pretty much the same with dubai's construction workers.

also, of course they could buy more for 10$ in their home country, but is this a reason to pay them 100$ in Dubai, if they get free accomodation, food and healthcare.

always assuming they get the above and their money is paid in time.

Many don't get food. I know this for a fact. They may get a Dhs 550 salary. From this they form a group of "meal partners." Each contributes say Dh 120 to buy their food for a month--rice, seasonings, some veggies, etc. They take turns everyday with some in charge of cooking others in charge of cleaning. They leave their camp site at 6 a.m., return at 6 p.m. to perform this routine daily. They have to cook enough for dinner to have what's left for breakfast and lunch the next day.

Accommodation--I don't know how you can call a bunk bed in a room of 18 accomodation. What does it cost the company per month to provide that? Dhs 50 per month per person? So they get accommodation--good reason to keep their salaries so low. Health care? There is none--absolutely none. Any doctors fees are to be paid by the worker. They don't dare miss work if they feel sick because for every one day missed, two days are cut from salary. If they end up getting too sick they are just sent back to where they came from.

Not all, but I would say a lot of these guys are not only victims of capatialist exploitation but also victims of the societies and cultures they come from. Do you really think they want to get married, have wives and children they never see, then send to them all of the little money they earn? When they go back after two years they have to return bearing huge boxes of gifts--not only for wife and kids but for in-laws, nieces, nephews, aunts, cousins, neighbors! They are nagged by family at home for not sending back enough money.

I've even heard that some of them prefer to put up with what they have to here, to escape the burdens and pressures of family at home.

My point is, a lot of these guys have it bad all the way around. Even if a guy knows there is little or no benefit in coming or being here he can't often get that across to family members. They know of this or that father/husband who is sending all of this and that to his family. Why can't their lazy, good-for-nothing father/husband do the same. Really, the "poor" family back in the sub-continent sends Christmas shopping lists to these guys when they know it's time for them to come home for a visit.

[dubaiflo]

as i said, "always assuming they get the above", as long as they get proper accomodation (you cannot talk about a 1Bdr marina apt, that is for sure, but 18people in one room is also not acceptable of course) and food as well as healthcare (and this is what most companies offer to them) and as long as they are paid in time and not forced to stay, well, this always happened and will always happen, using cheap labour from other countries.

[GoDubai!]

Originally Posted by dubaiflo

this always happened and will always happen, using cheap labour from other countries.

Maybe, always has and always will be but it isn't the case everywhere and it doesn't have to continue to be the case here. Why not? Economies develop, politics become more sophisticated, societies become more socially aware. Sure, Europe and the US had slavery, child labor and every other practice modern societies abhor. That was then and this is now. These societies have developed and matured. The same can happen in Dubai... it has already started. Even today the US relies on cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants. But it isn't at the obscene levels found in Dubai. A huge industry like construction, arguably the largest single industry in Dubai today, relys on labor that is just one step above slavery. This was the US South in 1860 when its principle industry, agriculture, relied on slave labor. The labor conditions in Dubai today cannot be compared to that in any Western country today.

There is no historical excuse for this. Dubai has to make things better.

[smussuw]

the salaries standards will not change, their condition might.

[Krazy]

Company defaults on workers' wages again

Dubai: Workers who staged protests last year on a major Dubai highway to demand unpaid wages, setting off a series of other labour protests, have said their company has delayed their wages again.

Labourers from the Al Hamed Company for Development and Projects, who laid down on Shaikh Zayed Road in September to demand months of unpaid wages, said their company had not paid them for January and February.

The men, working at a construction site in Mirdif, said company officials promised to pay them, but feared their salaries would be extremely delayed.

"Some of us have run out of money and we survive on credit from a grocer," one worker said.

The men said they did not have regular access to clean drinking water.

They said they were afraid to contact the police because "the company will be good to us while they are here but when they leave they will take action". They also said the two men who initiated last year's protest have been deported.

Al Hamed Company officials confirmed the men had still not been paid their January salaries but said it was an administrative problem.

"Like most construction companies, we delay wages one month. Workers are meant to get their January wages in February. But there are so many projects right now and administration has been late in handing over wages."

The officials said the workers will be paid January's salary next week "by the latest".

"Every month we send our accounts to the Permanent Committee on Labour Affairs in Dubai (PCLAD) to confirm we pay wages. We are doing our best to pay workers on time," an official said.

He denied that the company had fired any of the workers because they participated in last year's much-publicised protest.

The official said the workers lived in "five-star accommodation compared to what they are used to in India".

A PCLAD official confirmed workers had not filed any complaint "yet" and said he did not think the problem was serious.

[Towers]

^ its so funny how things work here, in canada if my employer delays my salary even a day, i am offically allowed to call the police.

[luv2bebrown]

they should strike again

[Krazy]

98 signatures in 5 days... we need more support guys otherwise this isnt gonna work out. Please spread the word!

[smussuw]

Originally Posted by Towers

^ its so funny how things work here, in canada if my employer delays my salary even a day, i am offically allowed to call the police.

go to canada then

[DUBAI]

maybe if their supervisors wear candoora, they could use their agal's to beat the workers, into working harder!

ok... maybe a little harsh. but im fed up with lefties for the moment.

[dubaiflo]

luv2bebrown could do the job.

[DUBAI]

We could make it a tourist attraction. take people to construction sites in landcruisers. then randomly choose some workers [maybe those who look lazy] and the tourists can beat them with the agal!

that way we get more towers... less delays. everybody wins... everybody is happy, and we make lots of money.

[Krazy]

After 5 days... we have crossed the 100 mark. Very slow compared to other petitions.

[kronik]

This is from the Indian Press:

In Dubai, years of abuse backfires

The first-ever riot by expatriate workers in Dubai was waiting to happen. Weighed down by maltreatment and broken promises on salary and housing fronts, expatriate workers have been a frustrated lot for years.

“Life for expatriates is hell. Low wages and at times physical abuse have made working conditions in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries miserable," said Anthony Rebello, a Gulf-based labour law consultant.

According to Muralidharan Nair, who returned from Dubai, white collar workers are paid 2,500-4,500 dirhams, which is a decent salary if housing and air tickets are provided. Nair says the labour class is paid very less, a driver 1,200-1,300 dirhams and a construction labour 700- 800 dirhams per month.

Mohammed Pasha, who works as a driver in Dubai, says labourers are made to stay at a place called Sonapur on the outskirts of Dubai city. Ten to 15 people live in a 6x4 room, a workday stretches up to 15 hours and coming late to office or absenteeism can lead to caning and extra work, he adds.

To top it all, there are companies which have not paid salaries for months. Passports are “confiscated" to prevent staff from fleeing and there are instances of employees being asked to foot the bill for their labour permits, he says.

This has resulted in many Indians sending their families home so that they can save money. “House rents are exorbitant and even though at the time of the interview, companies promise to pay, some of them don’t,” Pasha says.

The labour inspection section of the UAE brought these irregularities to the notice of the authorities but nothing was done, he says.

An executive of a leading Mumbai-based recruitment agency, G Gheewala Manpower Consultant, does not agree. “Things have changed a lot. Previously there were several incidents of workers not being given full salaries. Though there are no regulations to curb these practices, labourers are now more protected and their rights better safeguarded," he says.