UAE's Construction Worker Issues

[Bikes]

LOL, but agree nice and unique design if you did that.

[Krazy]

the petition is back up online.. They had some problems with their website

[dubaiflo]

cool, all the signature there as well.

so guys move on, SIGN!!

[UniTeD AraB EmiraTeS]

Walla i wont sign it taboon ta5sroon 7akoomatna flooos anto

[Bikes]

eh?

[DG]

Originally Posted by UniTeD AraB EmiraTeS

Walla i wont sign it taboon ta5sroon 7akoomatna flooos anto

[Krazy]

Labourers forced to share space with rodents


Poor workers find it very difficult to maintain a hygienic environment because of lack of resources and atrocious living conditions.

Abu Dhabi: A health official has advised migrant labourers whose accommodation is infested with insects and rodents to appeal to the municipality for urgent help to improve their living conditions.

Rajeh Al Fahel, Head of Health Education Section at the Ministry of Health, said he was shocked at the conditions the men in worker accommodation in Al Musaffah live in.

"These are terrible conditions for the men. If their companies refuse to help them they must immediately bring their complaints to us so we can advise them on how to maintain their personal health and complain to the ministry of labour or municipality who will inspect their living quarters and rid them of the pests," he said.

Al Fahel said that while the ministry of health offers education to migrant labourers and the companies they work for in Abu Dhabi, he acknowledged that many men find it hard to follow the guidelines they offer because of the atrocious conditions they live in.

"We try and educate these men by offering workshops to their companies and offering information on how to keep themselves healthy but because the conditions they live in are often so poor it is difficult for them to follow this advice," he said.

Lifting bed frames and mattresses into the hot morning sunshine, one of the workers, Asad, says he and the nine other men he shares his room with are kept up most of the night by the biting bugs. He says the men have complained to their company 'many times' but have received no help.

"We are being bitten all night. We have given up asking our company because they do nothing." He said it is a big problem in many of the camps.

Across from the men's' sleeping quarters two of Asad's fellow 350 camp cohabitants make chappatis on a fat encrusted gas ring.

The walls are covered with a black filth through years of neglect. Asad says they often see rodents and insects in the kitchen at night.

"This is where we cook. How are we expected to remain healthy cooking our food in a place like this?" he said.

Gulf News repeatedly tried to contact the company responsible for this camp but received no reply.

UNHYGIENIC CONDITIONS
Inspection of facilities

Poor workers find it very difficult to maintain a hygienic environment because of lack of resources and atrocious living conditions, head of the inspection department at the ministry of labour, Qasim Mohammad Jameel, has said.

"We wholeheartedly encourage labourers with complaints about their living quarters to come to the ministry of labour and report the issue so we can inspect the area and take the necessary action," he said.

Workers say their accommodations offer ideal breeding ground for rodents, insects and bed bugs. They said they are forced to cook food in unhygienic conditions. Companies who run the accommodation are unhelpful, they said.

[malec]

Horrible

A really negative article I found:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../10/2003301958


Tourists are targets in Dubai revolt

THE OBSERVER , DUBAI
Monday, Apr 10, 2006,Page 6

A general view of Dubai's Marina area on Friday shows high-rise buildings being built. Dubai is the largest construction site in the Middle East.
PHOTO: AFP


Kamal swats away a swarm of black desert flies from his face as he pours coffee from a battered tin pot. His calloused hands are shaking as he looks furtively at his "watchman" standing outside in the courtyard.

"If we are caught speaking to you here, we are finished, you understand that? They will throw me in prison and deport everyone in this camp, not just the people in this room. They are actively looking for us," he tells me.

The construction workers, packed together inside the tiny hut in one of Dubai's harsh desert labor camps, are breaking the most fundamental of all the draconian laws governing immigrants within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- they are holding a union meeting, a practice that is banned in all but one of the Gulf States. They are also plotting their next move in protest at their treatment by their Arab employers who, they claim, exploit them for cheap labor. It's a move that will, for the first time, involve direct confrontation with the millions of tourists who visit the city every year. They plan to shame foreigners into taking notice of their plight.

Dubai, one of the country's seven emirates and uniquely poor in oil, is at the pinnacle of a decade-long building boom that has transformed the city into one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. Today it is the largest construction site in the Middle East, home to luxurious hotels and three of the largest shopping malls on the planet.

The city's unrivalled building frenzy may be creating one of the Middle East's most modern and alluring holiday destinations, but it is supported by an increasingly disgruntled foreign labor force whose basic human right -- the right to voice their opinion -- is denied.

"One of the world's largest construction booms is feeding off impoverished immigrant workers in Dubai, but they're treated as less than human," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

A recent report by the group painted a deeply disturbing picture of immigrant lives in the UAE. It claimed that bleak living conditions, combined with long working hours and unacceptably low pay, had led to rising suicide rates among foreign workers in Dubai.

Last year, 80 Indian residents took their lives, up from 67 in 2004. In addition, an estimated 880 foreign workers died in accidents on UAE construction sites.

In recent months, though, the UAE's vast population of foreign workers have begun to fight back.

They have already staged sporadic strikes to protest at low pay. Women brought in to work as domestic servants are running away in record numbers.

A fortnight ago, in the biggest outbreak of public dissent in the UAE's history, thousands of workers rioted at the construction site for the Burj Dubai Tower, which by 2008 will become the world's tallest building.

Angered by withheld payments and mistreatment by their employers, some 2,500 laborers turned on their bosses and the local police, smashing cars and offices on the site and causing an estimated $1m of damage.

In a sympathy strike a day later, thousands of laborers working at Dubai International Airport laid down their tools.

According to 36-year-old Kamal (not his real name), who spearheaded the Burj Dubai protest, more needs to be done.

"These protests received attention in the press and were forgotten about, we need to do more. I was involved in a sit-down protest on the motorway last month, but the police came along with sticks and beat us on the backs and head. Many of my friends were hospitalized and deported," he said.

"The riot got a lot of attention, but things haven't improved for us. We already know what we have to do next, we take our protests into the malls and to the beaches," Kamal said.

"Our situation needs international attention and only by unsettling tourists can we achieve this. They need to see how desperate we really are," he said.

[smussuw]

I see more articles with such propaganda

[Krazy]

That's why I post labor abuse related articles only from local media like Gulf News and 7Days...

[smussuw]

"These protests received attention in the press and were forgotten about, we need to do more. I was involved in a sit-down protest on the motorway last month, but the police came along with sticks and beat us on the backs and head. Many of my friends were hospitalized and deported," he said.

The police cannot deport anyone without a court order and the thing about beating them is a lie. Police are more than reasonable when it comes to thousands of workers.

Anyone who support or invloved in any riots should be deported, peacful protests are accepted though.

They are also plotting their next move in protest at their treatment by their Arab employers who, they claim, exploit them for cheap labor

I dont think that they've ever seen those arab employers

Last year, 80 Indian residents took their lives, up from 67 in 2004. In addition, an estimated 880 foreign workers died in accidents on UAE construction sites.

They make it seems as if the authority is targeting foreigners. The number isnt even close to being accurate

[Krazy]

Debt-laden workers living in despair



Dubai: The majority of labourers continue to be coerced into paying a "recruitment fee" or other charge to recruitment agencies, although the practice is illegal, a spot Gulf News survey revealed.

They complain they have to pay the charges, racking up sizeable debts in their home countries along the way, but are too frightened to officially complain due to fear of retribution.

Three Pakistani workers sat in the Labour Ministry, trying to find a way to change sponsors. They had paid Dh8,000 each to agents working in the UAE more than a year's wages in their impoverished village.

Eight months later the men, too frightened to be named, were not paid any wages and were desperate to find other work.

"Otherwise how will I pay off this debt?" one of them asked.

The men, strict Muslims, ruled out suicide a road many other debt-laden workers have taken, but said they lived in despair, with a debt impossible to pay and no way home without paying it.

Recruitment agencies are openly, and illegally, pressuring these men and thousands like them in South Asia, to pay their counterparts thousands of dirhams in their home countries for the privilege of working here, forcing many into a debt trap they find impossible to climb out of.

Charging any recruitment fee to workers is illegal, according to UAE Labour Law.

But recruitment agencies exploit poor Labour Ministry supervision, and gaps in UAE labour law, and none have ever been charged.

A Gulf News reporter posing as a secretary for a construction company contacted 17 recruitment agencies, asking for 20 Indian helpers.

Nine agencies assured the "secretary" that the construction company itself would not need to pay a single dirham towards processing the workers' papers.

Instead, they said they would ask workers to pay a year's equivalent wages, about Dh5,800 for visa transaction fees here and in India, and a commission to the recruitment agencies in both countries.

Some sales executives in these nine agencies also offered to make the workers pay more not only for all transaction fees, but as an add-on "profit" for the company.

Of the remaining eight agencies, a salesman at one offered to charge workers Dh4,500 for visa expenses here, over and above what they would pay in India, and said: "We can take more if you like."

"All companies do this," assured another.

Two agencies offered to charge workers between Dh1,500 and Dh2,000 transaction fees.

"Workers won't agree to pay more," they explained, but both added that down the road, the company could deduct more fees from workers' salaries.

Another two agencies asked workers to only pay home country fees.

One agency charged workers' air tickets "in exceptional cases," a saleswoman said. Only one agency out of 17 actually followed the law and refused to charge workers anything at all.

'We are being forced into this system'

The manager of one recruitment company that offered to charge workers all the transaction fees said construction companies pressured them into charging workers for everything.

"Even respectable companies like ours are being forced into this system because we are losing business from these new companies, even though these exploited workers [who are charged for coming] usually don't have skills and feel very bitter when they come. If they were skilled, they wouldn't pay to come."

[malec]

Was bored tonight and looked through this paper.
http://www.7days.ae/2006/04/13/looki...ae-unions.html


Looking forward to UAE unions
Published on: Thursday, 13th April, 2006 | Permanent Link | no responses

The current drafting of a UAE law approving the formation of trade unions and collective bargaining by the end of the year will be a major step for workers in the UAE.

Although the current UAE Labour Law governs many aspects of employer/employee relations, in reality the majority of any indivual’s rights are contract-based.

Therefore, while more basic rights such as hours of work, leave, termination rights and repatriation are included in most contracts, the right to be paid over-time, the right to gratuity and the right not to be arbitrarily dismissed are not guaranteed.

At present, labourers are reluctant to speak up for their rights owing to the fact that their work visa is only valid if they are receiving sponsorship from an employer. A complaint lodged by a labourer may lead an employer to decide he no longer wants to be the sponsor, simultaneously striping him of his work visa.

“Provided the employment and immigration laws are so fully inter-connected, an employee will never have full protection under the labour law and nor will he be able to freely enforce his rights,” said Steve Balantine, a lawyer at the Dubai-based Galladari and Associates.

Recent events such as the striking of 2,500 labourers at the Burj Dubai site brought UAE-based workers into the media spotlight. But the UAE government has been making steps to protect labourers, and other employees, from unscrupulous employers for some time.

The fact that the UAE is in the midst of increasing the current monitoring authority from 80 to 2,000 inspectors who will enforce standards in both working and living conditions, is evidence of positive work in progress.

Furthermore, new rules issued last year by the UAE Ministry of Labour stating that companies delaying salaries or shortchanging workers would be fined and named.

The UAE labour minister Ali al-Kaabi announced that already 50 companies have been shut down and had assets seized for withholding wages. The introduction of government-based unions is the next step on the road to fully-modernised labour relations in the UAE.

The fact that the proposed UAE trade union is going to be federal will have both positive and negative implications. As Ali Al-Kaabi, UAE labour minister, said at the time: “The law will control how strikes will be conducted. It will outline rights, the dos and don’ts.”

Centralising the power of the unions will limit their power, but hostory suggests that this is no bad thing. Balancing the power between unions and the government is a delicate affair, with potentially devastating implications if that balance is not found.

Looking forward to UAE unionsThe constant striking in Britain during the 1960s and 70s as a result of the enormous power wielded by the unions caused such permanent disruption across the country that the UK economy was virtually reduced to meltdown.

By the time Margaret Thatcher came into power in 1979, the unions were effectively holding the country to ransom by demanding higher wages for less hours of work and it was only by stripping the unions of some of their power that the economy was able to get back on its feet.

Similarly the extent of the power that unions wield in the United States today has helped whole sectors towards bankruptcy. Many American airlines have gone into insolvency due to continued demands from airline staff for better wages and the associated striking.

General Motors – once considered the icon of American business and industry – is virtually on its knees today, partly as a result of the growing cost of labour imposed by the unions.

In an attempt to circumnavigate tough union rules, the company has re-located many jobs to lower cost production sites – the company now has 22,600 employees in 14 countries from New Zealand in the south, to India in the west and Korea in the North.

General Motors is not an isolated incident. Many unions are now faced with losing their own members because they have priced themselves out of the market. Aside from the issue of reduced industry productivity, America exemplifies that greater freedom doesn’t necessarily mean happier workers.

A federal union would be able to regulate the power of the unions, ensuring they do not place unreasonable demands that make business in the UAE an unviable option to foreign companies who need to remain competitive.

One of the biggest reasons companies locate in the UAE, and in particular Dubai, is due to the lower operating costs, largely owing to the cheaper labour. A sharp increase in wages may cause companies to pack up and leave, which would be bad news for th UAE workforce, and the economy as a whole.

One way in which union presence is regarded as positive is in improving productivity. By providing workers with a means of expressing discontent in the workplace, unions can reduce the percentage of resignations and absenteeism and overall labour turnover.

The major benefit for workers will be the introduction of collective bargaining, providing a framework by which workers can negotiate better terms as well as strengthening their current rights.

However, should immigration law not be brought in line, employers will still be able to cancel a visa and force someone out of the country instead of resolving a conflict.

Ideally, the advent of trade unions in the UAE will close the power gap that currently exists between employer and employee in a way that does not harm the efficiency of the economy on which we all rely for our livings

[malec]

Originally Posted by malec

The fact that the UAE is in the midst of increasing the current monitoring authority from 80 to 2,000 inspectors who will enforce standards in both working and living conditions, is evidence of positive work in progress.

This is good indeed

[Naz UK]

Workers stage protest to get unpaid salaries
By Eman Al Baik and Riyasbabu

14 April 2006



DUBAI – About 200 workers of Al Khoori Marine Contracting staged a protest at the labour camp in Al Aweer yesterday morning, demanding the payment of their salaries — overdue for the past three months.


An official source from the Permanent Committee of Labour Affairs in Dubai which includes representatives from different departments including the Ministry of Labour, the Human Rights Department of Dubai, and the Dubai Naturlisation and Residency Department, confirmed the protest saying that several committee members rushed to the labour camp to hear out the problem of agitating labourers and to try and resolve the dispute - which is expected by Saturday.

Investigating the claim of the workers, he added, it was proved that they were not paid their salaries for the past three months.

"It seems that the delay in salary payments might be due to the change of ownership from one businessman to another," he noted.

"The new employer, Matar Rashid A Jabiri, expressed his readiness to instantly pay the salary arrears," said the official adding, "The new employer will do so on Saturday."

According to the rules, the former and present employers are both jointly responsible for honouring all the financial commitments of a company, even when it involves a change of ownership."

[DUBAI]

there was a report on workers rights and conditions on the main bbc news bulletin of the day.

[Naz UK]

I know it might be jumping on the bandwagon, but the western media will continue highlighted this problem until something get's done. The Dubai authorities might be hoping if they look the other way long enough the problem will go away but we know that ain't gona happen. It might be how Dubai's media works but not the West's.

[DUBAI]

The real problem is in india though. its the agency's their who screw most of the guys over. admitidly their are a few companies who are bad, but it is the indian agents who do the damage; and since the UAE has little to do with them their is not much they can do.

[La Tortuga/Mr Shore]

Signed

[DUBAI]

the bbc mentioned the problem again today on 'dateline london' [which incidently is probably the best news program in the world]

one arab journalist said his newspaper was kicked out of media city a few months ago for highlighting the issiue.

and some of the journalists said that as the issiue has grown, people are beging to stop buying dubai properties. effectivly boycotting the city so as not to have 'a home built with the blood of the exploited'