Rights for domestic workers.

Reports today that the Federal Cabinet has set up a taskforce to to 'regulate the relationship between domestic workers and their sponsors.'

A proposed new law will, it is said, ensure the rights and duties of both sides are guaranteed.

It's another of the catch-up laws, of which there are so many in most areas of our lives. What has been accepted in the past is no longer acceptable, but so often we don't yet have laws to cover the problem areas.

The UAE Human Rights Organisation recently demanded, according to the Gulf News story, that domestic workers be covered by the Labour Law.

Why they weren't is a mystery to me.

The watchdog said that the domestic helpers' contract regulating the relationship with employers falls short of the minimum human rights and international labour standards.

There are thousands of domestic workers here and that's some indictment. It's obviously something that couldn't be allowed to continue.

Recommendations from the organisation are common sense and I can't see one good reason why they wouldn't be adopted in full and written into law.

They say the contract should include:
*A minimum wage.
*Working hours & duties for each job.
*System to transfer wages to banks regularly & on time.
*Proper accommodation ensuring privacy.
*Specific daily working hours and weekly rest.
*Annual leave as for other workers.
*Contract to be translated into languages known by domestic helpers.

And finally, a Hotline to be set up for complaints from domestic workers against any abuses.

Even though it's late the move is to be applauded. Let's hope it doesn't all get bogged down and delayed for months or years.

I do have one sceptical comment though. Assuming the law is passed, how is it all going to be enforced?

Very difficult when the domestic helpers are often poorly educated, if at all, they are strangers in the country with no network, are hidden away inside villas or apartments, maybe don't have the means to communicate, don't in any case know their rights.

There's a large responsibility on the home governments I would have thought, to inform and educate their citizens before they take domestic jobs overseas.

More on prices

It keeps going, this prices in Dubai thing.

To recap, in my earlier posting saying that Dubai wasn't as expensive as many western expats claim, there was a comment about Spinneys here in Dubai selling New Zealand rib-eye steak at the 'rip off' price of Dh65 a kilo.

A New Zealand friend sent me the prices there - which range fom Dh45 for rump steak to Dh84 for fillet.

Now a friend in Australia has just sent me the local butcher's price for steaks in Sydney...where T-bone is Dh50 and fillet is Dh89 a kilo.

While I was in Europe a couple of weeks ago I did the usual 'BigMac Index'.
Here are the comparative prices of a BigMac, converted to dirhams at today's exchange rates.

Amsterdam Dh15.80
Munich Dh16.60
Lucerne Dh34.32
London Dh25.80

Dubai Dh10

Dubai prices

The other day I was talking about the comparative prices of things in Dubai and whether overall it's less or more expensive to live here than in, say, western Europe.

A couple of things have cropped up that are relevant.

I was in Debenhams, the UK store, in Mall of the Emirates over the weekend, passing the time while Mrs Seabee looked for something to spend her money on.

A lot of the labels on clothing had the original £ price printed on them, with a dirham sticker on top. Careful peeling revealed that, at 7.5 exchange rate:

*some items are more expensive here.
*some items are the same price here.
*some items are cheaper here.

I guess the advice has to be that if you're visiting here from Europe, or visiting Europe from here, and you plan to buy a particular item, then you should check your home price before you leave. If it's cheaper at home, buy it when you get back. If it's cheaper 'there' then buy it there.

The other thing was an anonymous comment left on my posting about the 'rip off' price of steak in Dubai. The 'rip off' price is Spinneys selling New Zealand rib-eye steak at Dh65 a kilo.

I checked earlier with a friend in New Zealand and today they're paying - for their own meat which hasn't been airfreighted halfway round the world:

*Fillet steak Dh84 a kilo
*Porterhouse steak Dh73
*Rump steak Dh45

And remember that the best quality product is always exported. As I've been suggesting, many things are still a bargain in Dubai.

Depressed in Dubai?

Browsing through the visitors to this blog reveals some interesting things.

One is the number of people living in Dubai who use search engines to find answers about life here.

Another is the interesting questions they ask.

Today a visitor living in Dubai typed into google: Dubai will not last.
S/he obviously isn't feeling confident about the place.

Another wants to know: private beach, Dubai+topless.

An interesting question to Yahoo: minimal wage in dubai uae.
Many labourers, and others, would surely agree they get a 'minimal wage'.


And another who sounds fed up with life here wants the following information from google:
dubai irresponsible.

Christmas already?

Already, in Mall of the Emirates...

California wildfire tragedy.

I talk about the horrors of the Aussie bushfires every southern summer, and a few months ago the terrible fires in Greece.

Now it's the USA's turn to suffer again, or at least California, from their regular wildfire season.

I remember a couple of years ago when Aussie firefighters went to the US to help fight very bad fires, they came back amazed at the amount of equipment, people, resources their colleagues there had at their disposal.

Even with that it seems they're in danger of being overwhelmed in Southern California. The conditions are familiar to us down-under with the driest year on record, high temperatures, then the high winds. It then only takes a lightning strike, a carelessly dropped cigarette or a campfire not extinguished properly - or an insane arsonist - to start the inferno.

The winds are what firefighters fear the most and meteorologists are saying the worst winds are still to come over the fire areas.

Sadly, one person has been killed and four firefighters seriously injured, plus over a dozen other people injured. Over 200,000 acres have burnt already, while the LA Times is reporting over half a million residents have been ordered to evacuate and Reuters says over 700 homes have been destroyed.

Fire is a terrible, terrible thing.



LA Times photo

Many more photographs plus the ongoing story at LA Times.

Addition on Wednesday...the LA Times is now reporting nearly half a million acres burnt, 1155 homes destroyed and five more deaths 'linked' to the fires. The good news is that winds are slowing, temperature is dropping and humidity is rising.

Dubai expensive?

I've talked about this before - expats from UK & Europe in particular whingeing about Dubai being expensive.

Just going through bits & pieces from our holiday has prompted me to revisit the subject.

For example in London the single journey tube fare from Waterloo to Kings Cross, a short distance of only six stations, was £4 each. Crowded, uncomfortable, dragging luggage up & down stairs, no air-conditioning, and a short journey was Dh30 each.

In a little local Thai restaurant in a small country town the standard dishes were between £6 and £8 each, thats Dh45 to Dh60 per dish. Here we pay around Dh25.

Real estate? My brother recently bought a very small end-of-terrace bungalow in a town about 30 miles from London. Not in the city, it's worth stressing, but 30 miles away in a country town.

One bathroom, two bedrooms, one reception room (as they call them in the UK). The rooms are tiny - for example the master bedroom is 13ft6in x 10ft (4.16 x 3.12 metres). The one and only living room is 13ft x 13 ft. Here are the real estate agent's photos of it:





He paid Dh1,450,000 and had to spend Dh225,000 on necessary repairs and renovations. Total cost Dh1.7 million. And of course he had to use after-tax salary to pay for it, so in Dubai terms you could add about 25 percent.

Here's a photo of it now. Not much for the money is it:



I know rents are high in Dubai, and rising unacceptably, but employers still very often, if not usually, provide accommodation or an allowance to European expats. And salary is tax free, meaning an advantage of somewhere in the region of 25 to 40 percent over European taxed salaries.

All the other items such as food, travel, clothing, eating out, cars, fuel - if you compare like with like, which most of the whingers don't - are much cheaper in Dubai.

I have examples from other European countries we visited, which will be worth posting here when I've sorted it all out.