By IPS Correspondents
DUBAI, Oct 20 2005 (IPS)

Hundreds of foreign workers marching along the roads and blocking traffic, protesting against unpaid wages and poor living conditions, is a rare sight in any country and no less in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). But its increasing frequency has led the government to announce that it will ‘name and shame’ defaulting employers.

”My ministry will not hesitate to publish names of employers who fail to pay their workers in time and will blacklist the companies concerned. We will make sure that our measures deter companies which do not care about their workers and about the country’s reputation,” Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Ali bin Abdullah Al Kaabi warned in a statement earlier this month.

”We will not remain silent and allow non-payment of salaries to pass without taking strict action against violating companies. Punishment and action will be taken to prevent their recurrence,” he said adding that this would be only the first in a series of planned measures.

”An estimated 10,000 expatriate labourers have gone on protest in 2005. Such protests have become a major source of embarrassment for the UAE since they tarnish the country’s reputation and image abroad,” he said.

The Labour Ministry has prepared a preliminary list of 13 companies, many of them construction companies, which have faced strikes from the beginning of the current year till October 1. A more comprehensive list will be drawn up soon.

Discussions are also on between officials from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Interior Ministry’s Department of Residency and Naturalisation to implement a new mechanism that would ensure workers are paid their dues promptly and fairly.

These measures and other steps aimed at repatriating child jockeys comes in the wake of a United States report in June that criticised some of the Gulf countries and threatened sanctions for failing to fight human trafficking.

Nearly 98 percent of private-sector workers in the UAE are expatriates. Last year alone, the UAE government issued 500,000 visas for expatriate workers- a 20 percent increase in the country’s workforce.

One of the leading companies on the watch list is the Al Hamed Development Company, which has a total of 13,693 labourers under its sponsorship. Already in the limelight for having housed workers in substandard shelters, the company has seen frequent labour disturbances since March 2, which ended in a public demonstration against unpaid wages on September 20 by 1,000 workers.

”Other companies too have infamous reputations – take the Abu Dhabi-based Baftec plant where 273 labourers staged strikes on March 2 and March 25. Although the issue of unpaid salaries has been settled, the company remains under scrutiny,” said a Labour Ministry official.

”We are really in a mess. The salary we get varies from 500 to 800 dirhams (140-220 US dollars) a month and some companies don’t pay the salaries for several months. Whenever we ask the management for our salaries, we are threatened with cancellation of visa and deportation,” said Rafeeq, a Bangladeshi construction worker.

”Once the case is brought to the government’s notice, some companies are offering one month’s salary instead of the outstanding six-month dues, which is unfair,” added Rafeeq, whose roommate was at the receiving end of such a deal after having spent about 7,000 dirhams (1,920 dollars) in his country to get the job and visa.

”Any government move to ensure that we get what is due is welcome. This should have been done long ago,” said Mundiah, an Indian domestic worker.

Elsewhere in the region, thousands of workers have staged a series of protests in Kuwait over the past few months and 600 construction workers went on strike in Qatar in August as well. In all cases, the labourers complained of not receiving their salaries for several months and poor living conditions.

Rights activists say that these worker protests highlighted the need for effective legal measures to ease their plight.

”The issue requires fundamental solutions. We need an effective legal framework to govern employer-employee relations to protect workers from such businessmen…We must use the language of force to compel them,” Ali al-Baghli, board member of Kuwait’s Human Rights Association told the Gulf Times newspaper recently.

The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries are home to a population of 35 million, about 13 million or 37 percent of whom are expatriate workers and their family members. Foreign workers in the Gulf remit about 30 billion dollars to their home countries annually, although more than half of them draw under 400 US dollars in monthly wages.

Activists feel that the ‘sponsor’ system adopted by most Gulf nations, which is a regulation that curtails workers’ freedom and puts them at the mercy of their employers, is the main cause for exploitation.

Under it, employers have the right to terminate the contracts of their foreign staff and prevent them from seeking jobs in the same country unless they fulfil a set of tough conditions. This makes workers the underdogs in labour disputes.

”We must alter the sponsor system in a way to prevent employers from taking oppressive measures against their foreign staff,” Baghli said.

But change is on the way. Most Gulf countries are in the process of improving conditions for foreign workers by introducing new legislation consistent with international standards that include the introduction of a minimum wage system and substitutes for the sponsor system and expansion of the role of trade unions. Bahrain and Kuwait already have trade unions for nationals, where expatriates can be non-voting members. Qatar has also introduced a law last year granting workers the right to form trade unions. The Saudi Shura (consultative) Council has issued a law allowing ‘workers committees’, while Oman plans to allow trade unions.

In the UAE, assuring the labourers that the ministry would stand by them and was ready to help them solve their problems, the minister said, ”I call upon employees to approach the ministry whenever they face problems with their employers, rather than resorting to protests. This method is much more effective than labour protests.”

Moreover, blacklisting and boycotting companies which fail to pay workers their salaries ”would virtually halt their business and act as a deterrent to other companies, because they are sullying the image of the country,” President of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saeed Saif bin Jabr Al-Suwaidi said at a press conference.

”I personally think the financially weak companies must deposit three months salaries (of employees) with the Ministry of Labour as a guarantee so that in case of default, the workers can be paid salaries from the surety amount after liquidation,” he said.

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