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HRW interviewed Saadiyat labourers. Almost all the workers interviewed had, in their homelands, paid large ‘finders’ fees’ to ‘labour supply agencies’ contracted to construction firms in the UAE, which most had borrowed against the promise of attractive remuneration and terms far better than offered in reality.
This practice still seems to be widespread in spite of the fact that UAE laws prohibit agencies from charging workers such fees. Agencies’ commissions should come from the contractors themselves rather than employees.
These problems are far from exclusive to the UAE. In November last year, more than 2000 construction workers employed by Al Hamad Contracting in Bahrain went on strike after their wages (around US $185 per month) went unpaid for the second time in the year.
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A month earlier, workers for Handmade Interior and Contracting Services in the Kingdom had contacted Construction Week to complain that their employer had not paid them for almost four months and was refusing to release them from their contracts.
Authorities seem, on the surface at least, serious about changing the situation. Bahrain has recently introduced new labour laws which give migrant workers more rights, while officials from the UAE and Qatari labour ministries last year sat down with representatives from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, contractors from across the GCC, and Washington DC-based workers’ rights group The Solidarity Centre in an attempt to find a way of ensuring workers are correctly treated.
However, while NYU Abu Dhabi’s insistence could come to mark a watershed for the industry, HRW still holds
numerous concerns.
“Without a contractual agreement between NYU and its Abu Dhabi partner ensuring independent, third-party monitoring of labor conditions, there will be no way to know if employers are complying,” continued Whitson.
At the beginning of the year, Whitson made an appeal to regional countries: “Middle East governments should publicly set out their human rights agenda for 2010 and expect to be measured against their achievements.”
Governments should, of course, set the course but, as NYU Abu Dhabi has shown, clients, developers and even employees and residents can dictate the speed at which we reach the ethical treatment of those responsible for the buildings and infrastructure that we live in, work in, travel on and enjoy.
It’s the responsibility of the whole industry to ensure that no-one working in it is treated like a second-class citizen and to name and shame other companies that do not follow suit.
Labour Changes
July 2008
CW reveals that KSA, UAE and Qatar have no set minimum wage in place; Kuwait has a minimum wage for public sector workers, but not private; Oman’s applies only to Omani citizens, not foreign workers.
August 2008
Vincotte International’s Husaim Al Omani tells CW that worker health and safety is still almost unheard of in the KSA construction industry.
April 2009
UAE – Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announces government plans to impose new minimum standards across all labour camp accommodation in Dubai.
May 2009
A UAE Ministry of Labour-commissioned survey on living and working conditions within the industry reveals that 79% of workers think their situation is better than it was before arriving in the UAE; however, 71% of respondents say that current salary levels are poor.
August 2009
UAE – Hundreds of Dubai construction workers take to the street in protest of their low wages and the lack of overtime.
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