Labor in the UAE Construction Industry - Essay Example

Table of Contents Acknowledgments 2 Introduction 2 Compensation vs. lack of minimum wage 3 Recruitment Laws vs. employee exploitation 4 Working Conditions and Holidays 5 Gaps 6 Suggestions and Conclusions 7 Works Cited 9 Labor in the UAE Construction Industry Acknowledgments I would like to express my profound gratitude to my fellow students who assisted me with research and who on several occasions eagerly provided me with useful research material and constructive criticisms without which this project would have never been completed. I also wish to thank my professors for their guidance and patience and finally my family for their unwavering support even as I took up a great deal of time that should have been spent with them to work on the project. Introduction HR issues in the UAE have over the course of the last few decades been the center of a far-reaching controversy with the government and private employers being accused of exploiting underpaying and generally mistreating workers (Kanna 147). The Industry in question in most cases is the construction industry; it is worth noting that in the UAE, there are over 500,000 foreign workers who are tasked with the construction of the world famous skyscrapers and breathtaking architectural wonders that have turned cities like Dubai into Meccas of building engineering (Shaoul). The immigrant workers make up to 95% of the labor on the building sites may of them from East Asia, India, the Philippines and North Africa. Controversy has riddled the industry since it has been frequently claimed that employees are forced to work under inhuman conditions that border slavery (Forstenlechner, Madi, Selim and Rutledge 412). The immigrant laborious are often forced to pay back their travelling expenses at incredibly high interests rates and their passports taken away on arrival so they cannot leave or look for a different job. Ironically, on paper, the labor laws are relatively progressive on paper and they protect all workers local or immigrant from being exploited or abused by their employers. Nevertheless, this is rarely implemented and in most cases, even when the governments may force employers to restitute or compensate employees for damages and/or loss of life there are very few cases of employers having legal action taken against them irrespective of the gravity of their crimes to the staff. It is estimated that over 800 hired workers die on the job for a variety of reasons ranging from exhaustion, sunstroke, suicide and myriad more courses. Compensation vs. lack of minimum wage In as far as compensation is concerned; the employee is entitled to a basic wage which according to the law is the total sum monies paid as stipulated in the labor contract not inclusive of allowances for accommodation or travel. Their total wage on the other hand is the amount paid when they have been provided with necessary allowances, when end of service gratuity is considered; the employer uses the basic wage to calculate how much pension the employee receives. There is no set minimum wage in the UAE although the government recognizes that anyone making less than, Dhs. 4,000 inclusive of accommodation cannot be allowed to sponsor their spouse of children to live with them in the emirates. There being no minimum wage, companies tend to recruit desperate individuals especially from third world countries and they literary pay them whatever they wish since as soon as the contract is signed, labor laws make it nearly impossible for them to either quit their job or change it. Ergo, the lack of a minimum wage has greatly contributed to the increase in illegal labor as well as exploitative practices where employees are forced to live in abject poverty without the means by which to either improve their lifestyle of afford an air ticket back home. At the end of the day, the employees in the UAE construction industries must be recognized since they carry out the hardest tasks under hostile conditions in order to ensure the staff gets some form of protection from exploitation as well as fair compensation for their labors. Recruitment Laws vs. employee exploitation In as far as the issue of foreign employees in the construction or indeed any industry is concerned; employees are required by the law to cover the employee’s expenses ranging from fees in the recruitment process, visa medical examinations and the use of recruitment agencies without deductions being made on from their wages to cover this. While this is true on paper, the reality on the ground for most foreign employees could not be farther from the truth. By the time they get to the UAE, many of them are heavily in debt and could not leave even if they wanted to or they discover that they do not like the work or their employer (Cooper 9). A typical scenario for the recruitment of help for UAE firms is as follows; they advertise on the internet or newspapers in target countries, they then recruit individuals who are made to understand that they will have to pay back for their medical expense, air travel and any other charges the company may incur in the process of hiring them. They are however informed that they will be making a considerable sum and they can quickly pay of the debts quick and at friendly rates, most of the perspective employees being desperate will jump at a change for greener pastures. However, when they land, they face a radically different reality; they discover they are earning a pittance, sometimes less than 300 dollars per day. It is however impossible for them to leave since they must pay of the debts they incurred which in most cases are bigger and the interest rates higher than they had been made to think. Consequently they end up leading a life little different from slavery with their income for the first few years being used to fund their journey and other expenses which by law should have been settled by the firm that hired them (Mahdavi and Christine 7). While this is an unfortunate state of affairs that has resulted in massive public outcry more so from the international community, little is done by the state to ensure that the laws are followed. In fact, it is alleged that in most cases the state is more likely to protect the rogue companies that are exploiting employees rather than the victims of the scams. As a result most of the exported laborious live in shantytowns that are very different from the world class sky scrapers they help construct and they subsist on the minimum in terms of housing and mood in a attempt to make enough money for their families back home while at the same time slowly paying off their debts. Working Conditions and Holidays In as far as working hours are concerned, the law states that employees should be required to work for more than eight hours each day and only five days a week, in the construction study on the other hand, the maximum number of working hours is 8 and for days a week. Official working hours in the construction industry should be 48 per week, and any time above this should be considered overtime and dully compensated this is with the exception of the holy month of Ramadan where the maximum working hours are 30 per week (Al Jandaly). The overtime rates should be premium meaning higher than the normal rates and only applicable when they are working in regular hours. In addition, all employees are entitled to at least 30 days of annual leave each year as well as paid leave for 10 public holidays each year, two additional days are provided for personal religious holidays, which they can take at their discretion. Employees who choose to work during those days are considered doing overtime and should thus be compensated in line with the premium rates that recommended for the same. Workers are allowed 30 days of annual leave for which they are expected to be paid, in addition to that, they get 10 public holidays for the UAE as well as two for religious festivals which they are at liberty to take at their personal discretion (Al Jandaly). As part of their holiday, foreign staffs are also entitled to employer-funded travel between their country of origin and the UAE, an extra trip fully paid for should be included in the period where they take their annual vacation. Despite the existence of these laws, once again the condition of the UAE construction worker, more so the unskilled and semiskilled continues to deteriorate. It is quite apparent that rules only apply on paper and when it comes to real life situations, the employing company has absolute power over the lives and fates of the workers. As aforementioned many of the workers are expected to work so that they can pay back the money they were illegally loaned to travel and get the jobs, given that this could take as many as 3 years, it is unrealistic to imagine that they can be afforded any of the privileges that are stipulated in labor law. Most of them work six days a week and will rarely get a weeks, let alone a whole month’s holiday per year. There is no option for their travelling home for vacation as many would not in any case return and their employers would not be willing to fund their vacation since they are already underpaying them. Gaps The main gaps that exist in the labor laws in the UAE are therefore because the laws do not operate on a fair basis for everyone with the majority of the foreign help being grossly underpaid and treated contrary to the legal stipulations. In addition, the laws are in most cases never enforced and they do not set out clear-cut guidelines on the actions that should be taken against companies that hire and exploit their staff without regard to the laws. As aforementioned, there are some cases where workers get to have their grievances heard by a court and the employers are forced to compensate them for wrongdoing. However, there is rarely a scenario where employers have been punished for mistreating employees and consequently they are not motivated by fear of the law to respect their rights. Finally but not least, they is a huge gap in the fact that there are currently no laws that stipulate a specific amount of minimum wages. This has been the bane of many skilled and unskilled workers in the UAE as they are forced to accept lower wages to increase their chances of getting employment, the minimum wages also encourages the numerous cartels that specialize in recruiting labor for the industries since they can significantly increase their bottom line by underpaying the workers. Suggestions and Conclusions The UAE governments should set up a framework that ensures the construction industry does not thrive on a foundation of exploitative practices, to this end it should ensure to institute and implement strict laws that protect the welfare of employees and reduce the exploitation by the employers. Secondly, there should be accessible avenues through which the grievances of employees are addressed and one of them is though the formation of trade unions. In 2010, construction workers in Dubai tried to demonstrate so the authorities could hear their grievances, however instead of addressing them the authorities instituted a laws outlawing demonstrations and picketing by providing that those who are involved should be deported. It is only through institution of fair labor laws that the UAE states can prove to the world that they are as concerned about the human treatment of their staff as they are about their multimillion-dollar construction industries. The UAE should join the rest of the developed world by setting a minimum wage limit in order to ensure that workers are not enslaved by being made to work for wages that are too low to even justify their migrating there in search of work. In addition with a minimum wage there will be less profit to be made from illegal recruitment and workers can be assured a certain amount per month which shields the from exploitation and modern slavery. Works Cited Al Jandaly, Bassma. “Large gap between perks of UAE public and private sector Public sector has more weekly days off as well as more official holidays” Gulf News. 2013. Cooper, Nicholas. "City of Gold, City of Slaves: Slavery and Indentured Servitude in Dubai." Journal of Strategic Security 6.5 (2013): 9. Forstenlechner, Ingo, Madi, Mohamed T., Selim, Hassan M. and Rutledge Emilie J. "Emiratisation: determining the factors that influence the recruitment decisions of employers in the UAE." The International Journal of Human Resource Management 23.2 (2012): 406-421. Kanna, Ahmad. "A politics of non-recognition? Biopolitics of Arab Gulf worker protests in the year of uprisings." Interface 4 (2012): 146-164. Mahdavi, Pardis, and Christine Sargent. "Questioning the Discursive Construction of Trafficking and Forced Labor in the United Arab Emirates."Journal of Middle East Womens Studies 7.3 (2011): 6-35. Shaoul, Jean. "The plight of the UAE’s migrant workers: The flipside of a booming economy." World Socialist Web Site. 2007. Web. 2014 Read More