More than AED8.6mn ($2.34mn) has been paid to 1,637 UAE construction workers this week, bringing to a close a labour dispute which saw the labourers left unpaid for three months when their employer shut the company down, state news agency WAM reported.
The dispute was resolved through the Labour Reconciliation Committee in Abu Dhabi and the workers were provided the overdue wages within a week, according to 7DAYS newspaper.
Last month, a labour dispute involving around 5,000 labourers at an unnamed construction site in Dubai was also resolved when they agreed to return to work after their employer agreed to improve their work conditions.
Following a dispute with workers, the unnamed company agreed to provide fridges for drinking water and food meals and increase the number of toilets, the Ministry of Labour said in a statement.
“Inspectors from the ministry, in cooperation with the Permanent Committee for Labour Affairs in Dubai and Dubai Police, worked out the agreement on these demands between the company’s officials and the workers who later on went back to the site,” Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour for Inspection Affairs, Maher Al Obad, was quoted as saying.
The workers had been demanding higher wages, which was deemed illegal, Al Obad said, as the contracts they signed must be observed and “are subject to the consensual agreement between the two parties”.
