Midday break begins today

The midday break for outdoor workers, from 12.30 to 3pm, begins today. It ends on September 15 so it includes Ramadan.

The workers will have been looking forward to it I'm sure, because temperatures are already in the forties celcius and yesterday's humidity was about as bad as it gets - it was around 95% according to weather reports.

The Ministry of Labour says most companies obey the law on the break but even so they say that 'over 650' companies were fined for non-compliance last year.

They've given a phone number to which any member of the public can anonymously report violations. It's 800665.

Good news for the boys in blue

Some good news for the UAE's outdoor workers - the summer midday break will be extended by a month, running from June 15 to September 15.

It'll last through Ramadan this year too, which must be a huge relief for those workers who'll be fasting.

The bad news is that the hours of the break won't be extended, it will stay at 12.30 to 3pm.

When it was introduced in 2005 it was from 12.30 to 4pm, and the later finish is important because the hottest part of the day is often around 3pm. But construction companies complained and the next year it was shortened by one hour, where it's stayed.

Eighteen inspection teams from the Ministry of Labour will monitor compliance but it's inevitable that some companies will flout the law. MoL say their statistics show that more than 650 companies were fined last year for non-compliance.

Fines range from Dh10,000 and a ban on obtaining new labour permits for three months for a first offence to Dh30,000 and a ban on obtaining new work permits for one year for a third offence.

Sponsorship system under review?

What a massive change it would be if the much criticised employer sponsorship system under which expatriates work and live in the UAE was replaced by a new system.

Well, it could happen according to Gulf News, which reports that the current system is under review.

They're quoting a 'cabinet source' as saying that cabinet is discussing a new employment system for expatriates, proposed by the Ministry of Labour.

On the same subject, a couple of days ago the president of the Emirates Human Rights Authority said that the Ministry of Labour is expected to approve "a new system to replace the sponsorship system" by year's end.

There are no details of what's being discussed and there's been no official comment or confirmation so we'll just have to wait and see.

There's another report on labour conditions in The National today too, which has me confused.

The report says:

"New York University has demanded a sweeping set of rights for workers hired to build its Saadiyat Island campus.

The university and its Abu Dhabi Government partner said workers must be allowed to keep their passports, receive 30 days annual leave and not be left indebted to recruiters. Foreign employees must also receive medical insurance and an airline ticket home each year.

Employers must pay or reimburse fees for requirements such as visas and medical examinations.

Wages will be paid on time by electronic transfer."

Now I know that those things are often not provided by employers, especially in the construction industry, but I thought they were part of the Labour Law anyway, which a quick search seems to confirm. For example:

The maximum prescribed working hours for an adult employee is eight hours per day or forty-eight hours per week.

For every year of service, an employee is entitled to annual leave of not less than the following:
1. Two days leave for every month if his service is more than six months and less than one year.
2. A minimum of thirty days annually, if his service exceeds one year.

At the end of the contract the employer is responsible for the repatriation expenses of the employee to the place of recruitment or to any other place which the two parties have agreed upon.

I found that here.

In addition, keeping passports is illegal, employers have to pay for visas, salaries have to be paid by electronic transfer and Abu Dhabi made providing medical insurance for expat workers obligatory a while ago, didn't they?

It would seem that the 'sweeping set of rights being demanded' are already covered by the law. All it needs is enforcement, and as the government is a partner in the development surely that won't be an issue...

Then to the other bit I don't understand:

"Recruitment specialists said the demands were unrealistic."

Uh?

So as I read it the developers, NYU and the Abu Dhabi government, are demanding that contractors abide by the law. But recruitment specialists say that's unrealistic.

Not for the first time, I'm left confused.


Gulf News.
The National.

Another steady job...

I began my post on Sunday with "There are a number of people who have steady jobs in Dubai, like the guys who have small domestic brooms to sweep the sand back."

I spotted this one this morning:



He had plenty to do after the couple of windy days we've had.

He has to work with less than hi-tech equipment too - a domestic broom, a dustpan & brush, a black plastic bag.

A steady job

There are a number of people who have steady jobs in Dubai, like the guys who have small domestic brooms to sweep the sand back.

I came across another one in Dubai Marina.

There are seven or eight kilometres of railing, a man, a bucket and a rag...



All on his own he was doing a good job.

Wipe the rag over the railing for several metres, walk back to get the bucket of water, take it a few metres further on, walk back and wipe the rag over the railing, walk back to get the bucket of water, take it a few metres further on........

Pricing Emiratis out of a job.

The National has a story this morning about security guards in Dubai protesting because they are payed much less than their colleagues in Abu Dhabi.

At the beginning of the year the the Ministry of Interior declared a minimum salary for expat guards at Dh2,000 a month, but that hasn't yet been applied in Dubai.

However, there was a particular sentence in the story that intrigued me:

"In January, the Ministry of Interior announced that expatriate security guards would have to earn at least Dh2,000 a month and Emirati ones Dh6,000 as part of a new accreditation scheme for private security companies. "

Now I can see that maybe the Emirati salary was introduced in an attempt to encourage Emiratis to apply for employment. But I can't imagine any company owner tripling his salary bill simply to employ them.

Counter productive, surely?



The story is here.

Dubai, expat Utopia

There are two stories in Khaleej Times today demonstrating again the accuracy of the survey that said UAE is tops in providing luxury to expats.

One from Abu Dhabi is on official labourer accommodation and says that many companies are ignoring the basic standards required by law.

What a surprise.

Of the 100-plus accommodation sites inspected "many" were found not to be complying with the standards.

All the companies are required to do is basic stuff. To provide accommodation which has good ventilation and adequate sunlight, with floors high enough off the ground to avoid being flooded, and have electricity and water. Rooms must be adequate to accommodate the maximum allowed of six people. They must have a minimum ceiling height of 2.28m, be equipped with beds, elevated from the ground, plus wardrobes. There must be at least one toilet and wash basin for every 10 workers, the toilets equipped with exhaust fans and be located far from the kitchens.

It's just basic isn't it, nothing draconian.

Yet "many" are not even providing this basic level, which demonstrates yet again that laws are ignored unless they're rigorously enforced.

The other story is from Umm Al Quwain and is about unofficial accommodation. Like the other emirates, UAQ does not allow 'bachelors' to live near families.

The story begins: The Umm Al Quwain Municipality has disconnected water supply to 25 houses in Old Al Salama to punish 2,000 bachelors living in a locality designated for families.

Twenty-five houses, two thousand people?

I make that an average of eighty people living in each house. Even if they're large enough to have ten rooms that's eight to a room.

In Old Al Salama, up to 95 bachelors lived in one house. The houses were partitioned and each room was packed with up to eight workers. Landlords of these houses have flouted the housing committee’s regulations.

Both landlords and tenants apparently ignored warnings, so the Municipality has decided to force the issue. The tenants are obviously being exploited and they're now being forced out of their accommodation by a lack of water.

I wonder what action is being taken against the landlords. Are services being cut off to their houses? Are fines being issued to them? Or do you think it's only the 'bachelors' who'll be punished and the exploiters will simply get away with it?



Here are the stories:

Labourer accommodation.

Bachelors denied water.

Stylish labourers

I came across this gang of labourers this morning, looking very stylish in their straw hats.

Wearing their own clothes too rather than the usual uniform...a private group perhaps?

Today being July 1st the midday break rule comes into force and I have a question (not sarcastic, I really would like to know).

Several parts of India and Pakistan, where many of the labourers come from, have summer temperatures up in the forties celcius. Do they have a midday work break there?

Five years to improve workers' accommodation

WAM Abu Dhabi, Jun. 8, 2009 (WAM) -- As part of its commitment to protect workers' rights and improve the standards of workers' accommodation in line with international standards, the Cabinet, in a latest initiative, has issued Decision No. 13 of 2009, approving the manual of the General Criteria for the Workers' Accommodations.

The new manual sets out minimum standards, which I'm sure most of us would have expected to already be provided but which in many cases aren't.

It's a good step forward in an area that's long needed improvement and it's comprehensive in covering many subjects that needed set minimum standards.

It specifies building materials, covers water systems, sewerage, air-conditioning, lighting systems, elevators, emergency exits, fire extinguisher systems and indoor air quality. At least thirty-five percent of the total space must be allocated for entertainment, parking, yards, walkways and green spaces. Each accommodation complex should have its own mini market and playgrounds.

While the minimum standards are an improvement on what's often been provided in the past they're way below what many of us would consider acceptable. But, they are acceptable to many others and that's where the old argument crops up again. Where you're from, what you're used to, whether it's an improvement on that comes into it.

No space is a point that jumps out at me, because plenty of space, whether indoors or outside, is a thing with me.

Here's what the manual says about space:

Respecting the need for personal space, "it is essential for the facility owner to assign a minimum of three square metres in each room to accommodate a bed, side table and wardrobe for each worker living in the complex. The number of workers allowed in each room, should not exceed eight to ten, with a commitment to provide individual space for each one of them."

Three square metres. About eight feet by four feet. Pace it out and see how little that is.

In it, fit a person, a bed, a side table and a wardrobe.

I can't.

It needs a larger minimum space, but I can't see many companies volunteering to increase their costs by providing it if they don't have to.

(An interesting side note is that Dubai's minimum standards which are already in place say that each worker should have 3.7 square metres, or 40 square feet, of space).

Health & safety comes in, including that each accommodation must include its own medical clinic equipped with full services and medical practitioners available 24x7. It also gets into details of cleaning, laundry facilities, bathrooms & toilets, supply of bathroom toiletries, towels and so on.

Apart from the tiny space most of it makes sense to me. The time frame for improving existing conditions doesn't though.

This presumably refers to new accommodation:

With effect from the beginning of September 2009, Municipality departments will not issue any permit for workers' housing across the country, including free zones, unless those facilities fall in accordance with this cabinet decision and any related provisions issued by the Minister of Labour.

For existing accommodation the manual says:

The decision stresses the employers' responsibility to provide workers' accommodation commensurate with the international labour standards. Each facility operating in the country should upgrade its current workers' accommodation conditions to comply with these standards. Employers are given a maximum period of five years, commencing on the day the decision comes into force.

Five years?

That's over generous, surely.

In five years we see massive new shopping malls built. We see whole new residential neighbourhoods completed. We see mini-cities built and operating.

Worker accommodation is not a profit centre, it's a cost. You can understand why employers are reluctant to invest any more than the absolute minimum in it. That's where legislation needs to push it along, not only in setting minimum standards but also in the timeframe.

As The National points out in its report, Dubai's existing minimum standards had a time limit of three years. Now there are new rules with an even longer grace period.

If a company has five years to build a new labour camp and it takes (let's be generous) a year to build, do you think they'll start now? Or do you think they'd defer the cost for four years and start then, opening the smart new camp just before the deadline?



All the news outlets seem to be carrying the story. The two I've mentioned are here: WAM and The National.

Too much hot

"Weathermen said they report only the ambient (environment) temperature which is around three degrees less than then actual under-the-sun temperature"

Bear that in mind when you read the temperatures below.

It's certainly warming up, and it's only May. The saving grace is that humidity is way down low, so it's actually not too uncomfortabe.

Well, as long as you don't spend many minutes out in the sun that is.

Dubai: It was scorching in Jebel Ali on Wednesday with the daytime temperature shooting up to 49C, the highest maximum temperature around the emirates, according to the Dubai Meteorological Office.

Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi all recorded 46C, still way above average for this time of the year, the duty forecaster said.

With humidity at less than 10 per cent, it is still very dry...the comfort index is graded from 'comfortable' to 'high stress'.

The higher the humidity, the higher the stress level. It is at the comfortable zone at the moment as humidity is 7 per cent.

But we know what to expect.

...things will get worse when the monsoon rains reach Mumbai around June 10, said the duty forecaster.

“A lot of moisture will come in from the Arabian Sea around mid-June, pushing humidity levels into the uncomfortable zone,” he said.

I'm not sure that 'uncomfortable' is an adequate word. If the temperature stays at this level and we get our usual summer eighty or ninety percent humidity it's going to be a little more than uncomfortable.

The forecourt attendants who filled my car yesterday were telling me it was too much hot, even though most of the time they managed to work in the shade.

Spare a thought for the gardeners and street sweepers who don't have the advantage of shade.

And worse still, the construction labourers who are doing hard manual work. Most of them come from countries where temperatures are similar to these so they can handle it reasonably well, but even so it can be a killer.

The midday break rule doesn't come into force until July 1st, when they can't work between 12.30 and 3pm, so the current lack of humidity is a real benefit for them. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like for them if these temperatures were combined with high humidity.




Gulf News weather report.

Population ups & downs

We have plenty of conflicting reports about Dubai's population, varying wildly from large decreases to large increases over the next year.

They're all guesswork of course, crystal ball gazing, so I view them all with some scepticism.

The DNRD have said that many more new visa are being issued than existing ones cancelled. But as I said in a March posting the 'journalists' failed to clarify the figures so we don't really know what they mean.

We've had projections of population reductions from UBS (down 8%) and EFG-Hermes (down 17%) while the Ministry of Economy says Dubai's population will grow by 7.8% this year.

The EFG-Hermes predictions also include something that many people are saying - a mass exodus in July: "...a number of people who lost jobs in the beginning of the year are staying on to allow their children to complete the school year, and will leave once the term ends."

I take that with a pinch of salt - if they lost their jobs at the beginning of the year how are they staying until July, given the visa rules?

My gut feeling is that the population will stay about the same in number but with a noticeable change in its makeup.

I don't suppose my experience is much different from most others. Friends and aquaintances have been moving on for a variety of reasons - they've been here long enough and it's simply time to move on, or the contract's ended and they move on to another one somewhere else, or they lost their job in the panic redundancies companies have been making. But there are new arrivals too, some replacing people who've left while others are coming into new positions.

There's also the huge new retail job market. For example, WAM reports that the Dubai Mall is now the region's single largest new employment generator, creating 10,000 jobs this year. There's also the new Dubai Marina Mall, and the extensions to Ibn Battuta and Mall of the Emirates. Plenty of additional hotels too.

So while jobs are being lost in areas such as financial services, real estate and construction, many more jobs are being created elsewhere.

So the big, bulk change in makeup I see is that construction workers, who are mainly Indian, are leaving while retail and hospitality workers, who are mainly Filipino, are arriving.

There's been a huge and noticeable change in the number of Filipinos here already and I think that's going to accelerate in the coming year.

For the rest of us I don't think there'll be much in the way of a noticeable change, perhaps a few less Europeans and Arab expats overall.



WAM retail report.

Down 17% prediction.

Down 8% prediction.

Up 7.8% prediction.




LATE ADDITION. MARCH 2010

I'm still receiving visitors to this post from Isaac's post a year ago on Submedia. You may have arrived here from the link he gave.

In it he said I and other Dubai-based bloggers: "along with the government-monitored-if-not-owned newspapers are the only ones defending the city as the whole world cackles at a dirty dream that has been exposed for what it really was.

A response to that was required, and so were corrections to the untrue claims & statements and misinformation in his post. You've read what Isaac had to say, now you can read the real facts here.

The economy, law enforcement and transparency

The BBC programme 'Slumdogs & Millionaires' seems to have caused official ripples.

According to Gulf News, the Ministry of Labour will investigate the claims made in the programme that expat workers are made to live and work in completely unacceptable conditions.

The MoL has issued a statement saying that an inspection team has been ordered to investigate the claims and that 'any violating companies will be penalised'.

As the Minister points out, the rights of workers is covered by legislation. The problem is that companies ignore rules and laws - not ony in Dubai but just about everywhere - and they need enforcing.

It's no secret in Dubai that some labour camps are way below the standards they should be, even the local press has run stories about it. The media can find violations but somehow the inspection teams miss them.

So what's the answer, many more inspectors? More willingness to hunt out and penalise violators? Both, probably.

The ministry reaction does once again demonstrate the value of exposure, of openness, of bringing things which need changing into the public arena.

There's also the report that a former Minister of State has been charged with appropriating public money and damaging the country's interests. Only his initials are used in the local media, in keeping with the media ethics code, but he's named in a report in the Financial Times.

That's an interesting advance by the way, a good step along the road to transparency. Not all that long ago there would have been no public disclosure of such a situation.

There was another story of tighter enforcement of regulations in yesterday's Financial Times too. The chief executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority says they will stamp out any vestiges of “light-touch” regulation. “The light touch approach is over,” he said.

Many of us have been talking for some time about the urgent need for enforcing the rules and laws in all sorts of areas, the driving laws and labour laws in particular. It seems to be happening, probably too slowly and sometimes it needs the international spotlight to highlight the violations, but it seems as though we may be getting there.

The FT ran another background story on Dubai yesterday, the writer Roula Khalaf not pretending that Dubai isn't being hit badly by the recession but talking sensibly and responsibly about the problems, what needs to be done and the future. A professional job after the copycat 'dark side of Dubai' sensationalism we've been seeing recently.

She highlights one of the big problems we have: Dubai remains obsessively keen to keep its problems out of the public eye. And she makes the important point: The emirate likes to be known as an outwardly, cosmopolitan city, but it has not come to terms with the responsibility alongside that – crucially, the need for transparency.

There's also an FT report that Lord Mandelson, the UK Secretary of State for Business, has raised with the authorities here the major economic problem which I posted about last week, the big developers not paying contractors.

Once again the international spotlight falls on something which should not have been allowed to happen.



Ministry to investigate BBC claims.

Ex-minister charged, Gulf News.

Ex-minister charged, Financial Times.

Roula Khalaf's background piece.

Major developers owe billions.

The dreaded T word rears its ugly head

The six Gulf nations have agreed in principle to implement corporate and individual income tax by 2012 and are now discussing ways to bring the deadline closer, people close to the matter told Emirates Business yesterday.

The front page story in today's EmBiz247 has hit the radio news bulletins and attracted plenty of comment from listeners throughout the morning.

It's the final confirmation of something I've talked about in the past, that Dubai will become just one option among many on the expat job circuit.

We're almost there now, with the increasing rents, inflation, less generous salary packages, fees & charges for so may things.

The days when Dubai, and the other Gulf cities, were places to go to earn heaps of money to set yourself up for life have gone. They went for most people probably four or five years ago.

Personal income tax, even though it's likely to be as low as say Hong Kong or Singapore, is the final step.

So the Gulf cities will lose their edge and simply be another option for expats to consider. Hong Kong, Singapore, KL, London, New York, Dubai, Bahrain...

And that's when they'll really have to compete at a facilities and lifestyle level.

If your net salary would be the same in, say, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, your decision will be based on which city offers the best lifestyle. And that covers a multitude of issues, not only leisure facilities such as beaches and restaurants but things like personal freedoms and equitable laws.

There's a lot of work to be done.


The full EmBiz247 report is here.

Any shade will do

Even in this beautiful weather it must be hot work for the labourers on their long shifts.

If there's time for a break, any shady spot is welcome:

Bureaucracy gone mad.

To continue on yesterday's theme, there's an article in Gulf News today under the title "A few things to note before changing jobs".

Before I get onto it, let's set the scene.

We're talking about the free-wheeling, tax free, hard-nosed business centre of Dubai. The city which makes doing business easy and profitable because it's pinned its very future on its commercial success.

Dubai depends on businesses setting up here. Businesses which can attract talent to work in them.

I can do no better than simply print the words in the article, by Alice Johnson. She's writing about expatriates who want to change their job.

Change your job? Simple isn't it - you give the required notice to your employer, they throw a goodbye party on your last day, everyone wishes you good luck and next week you start your new job.

Not in the free-wheeling, tax free, hard-nosed business centre of Dubai.

OK Alice, off you go:

...be aware that the visa transfer/issuing of a new residence visa and labour card is a complicated process...

...To transfer a visa, the new employer needs to gain permission from the previous employer, after gaining approval from the Ministry of Labour.

Residence visas are usually issued for a period of three years. The UAE's free zone visas can usually be transferred from one employer to the next. However, the previous employer needs to agree to the transfer and may need to provide a no objection certificate (NOC). The NOC may need to be provided in Arabic, on headed notepaper, signed by the local sponsor.

If you have a non-free zone visa, it will need to be cancelled before a new visa can be applied for.
You will need to sign a document instructive of a six-month work ban. This ban, however, can be lifted with the NOC from a previous employer.

If a non-free zone visa is cancelled, the new employer may have to pay a fine for the duration of the remainder of the visa, if the employee has not completed a specified period of work. This period is one year for Masters and PhD holders, who can transfer sponsorship an unlimited number of times. It is two years for Bachelors degree or equivalent, and are allowed to transfer twice.

Other categories of employee with lower qualifications are allowed to transfer once during their tenure in the UAE, and must have been working for at least three years for a current employer.
The one-year clause can be exempted under certain conditions, including approval from current sponsor, minimum qualification of a high school certificate, approval from the Minister of the Undersecretary and payment of certain fees.

Under certain rules, labour categories are exempt, provided employers pay Dh3,000. These rules include a company announcing bankruptcy or if the Ministry of Labour cancels a company's license.

You can bet that's just the tip of the iceburg too. Delve into it and there are bound to be many more inclusions, exclusions, educational rankings, that's-not-allowed-but-you-can-if-you-pay-a-fee clauses...

How do they come up with this stuff?

So many unnecessary obstacles thrown in your path when you try to do anything. And so many fees, the tax that dare not speak its name.

Astonishing.



I'm not making it up, you can read Alice's article in full here.

Keep the site clean...

I came across this notice the other day in Dubai Marina. Most of the 'Don't do' signs are standard, you'll see them on all construction sites.

But I haven't seen the last one before...

Boy, they were tired.

In the heart of downtown Deira, a much-needed break...and nothing distracted them...

Maids' wages

About ten days ago I was talking about the new minimum wage bringing a better deal for Indian maids.

In it I said that it's a highly complex issue and I talked about the different wages which different nationalities view as fair and acceptable, which attracted some debate.

Today there's a story in Gulf News that reinforces both points. People are saying that they can no longer afford to hire maids, which obviously means that some maids will lose their jobs and will no longer be able to send money back for their families. That's just one complexity.

And there's a list of the minimum wages set by some maid-supplying countries. It demonstrates the difference in what the governments of these countries believe is a fair and acceptable wage for their citizens. The lowest wage is half the highest wage.

None of them are saying, as well-meaning but naive westerners all-too often say, that citizens of all countries must be paid the same wage. That 'there's a rate for the job'. They acknowledge the temporary guest-worker nature of our workplace, the fact of remittances, the relationship with the wages, cost of living and economy of the home country. They base the minimum wages for their people on that.

The monthly minimum wage for maids is:

Philippines: Dh1,470
India: Dh1,100
Sri Lanka: Dh825
Indonesia: Dh800
Bangladesh: Dh750

Here's the full story in Gulf News.

A better deal for Indian maids

There's regular comment about the wages of lower-paid workers in the UAE, and the conditions in which some - especially labourers in the construction industry - are accommodated.

The wages and treatment of housemaids is also a subject of conversation and media reports. Exploitation has been all-too common so it's an area that governments have needed to be involved in. Fortunately that is happening.

The Indian Embassy in the UAE has just issued new regulations for the employment of maids from India.

With immediate effect, housemaids from India must be paid at least Dh1,100 a month plus food and accommodation plus return airfare. They must be a minimum of 30 years of age and it seems that some kind of check into the employer is carried out. The announcement from the Embassy is here.

The new wage is US$299 a month, or at today's exchange rate £152, Euro200.

When you convert it into western currencies it sounds appallingly low doesn't it.

In spite of an 80% increase, is it still exploitation?

The ongoing discussion about lower-paid workers' wages has popped up here again, on the UAE Community Blog and then on Bss & Brn in Al Ain blog.

It's a highly emotive issue, but it's also highly complex.

Just look at a couple of the economic issues - putting aside bad treatment of people, which is unacceptable for anyone under any circumstances.

We live in an economy in which the majority of people are guest workers. Many of the workers are from countries in which their remittances have a huge impact on the economy. Indian remittances last year were nearly US$30 billion. The Philippines economy received remittances of over US$14 billion last year. Remittances are some countries' largest foreign exchange earner.

The average wage in many labour supplying countries is around a dollar a day. The cost of living in many of them is low enough that a person sending back just a few dollars a month is supporting an extended family.

It's highly complex, encompassing everthing from the individual to entire economies. To relate the wages of workers from these countries to western wages & costs of living is meaningless. To say there should be a wage for the job regardless of where people come from is naive.

Compare the wages in your country with the official minimum wage rates declared by the Indian government through its Embassy in Abu Dhabi for its citizens.

For example, the lowest wage is Dh600 a month (US$163, £82, Euro109) for unskilled workers including labourer, cleaner, messenger, Grade II Waiter, cook on personal sponsorship, farm workers.

For 'Office Staff' the minimum wage is Dh1150 to Dh1200 a month (US$312, 157, Euro209). For 'Highly Skilled' people including X-ray Welder, Nurse, Accountant,a minimum wage of Dh1400 to Dh1700 a month (US$380, £191, Euro255).

In the context of India and Indians, the Indian government says those are fair minimum wages.

You can read the full list at the Embassy website.


As I said, it's complex.

Improving the labourer's lot

The situation regarding lower paid workers is the subject of discussions in Abu Dhabi, where twenty-two nations representing labour importing and exporting countries are meeting. It's another of those 'catch-up' areas where laws and actions are way behind the times.

In fact the countries involved have been sending or receiving labour for decades so the improvements are long overdue.

A big problem was highlighted and it's one that plagues businesses in all industries in this region - the lack of hard data. It's difficult to formulate policies if you don't have hard facts on the details of the problem.

One particular area that's long needed attention is unscrupulous agents - usually in the supplying country - who in simple terms mislead and rip off the workers. They charge huge amounts and make promises of salaries and conditions that simply don't exist. The worker gets here to find the situation is far different from the promise, but because s/he is in debt to the tune of thousands of dollars can do nothing about it.

One excellent move is that the UAE will establish processing centres in labour sending countries where applicants will be given local knowledge about where they're going, have labour contracts explained and their eligibility for employment confirmed. They'll also receive literature in their local languages.

In Dubai there'll be a follow-up, in that centres will be established this year in the main labour accommodation areas to provide information on labourers' rights and responsibilities . Inspections of labour accommodation will also increase dramatically - another essential development - with some 100 camps to be checked monthly. Last year over a third of the accommodation checked was found to be in bad condition.

So, governments at both ends of the supply chain are finally getting to grips with what all to often often turns out to be a human tragedy.

Off at a tangent

And thinking of health and safety, there's also news from Abu Dhabi about jaywalkers being fined. Nothing wrong with that, far too many pedestrians are being killed each month.

But it does raise the question of exactly what the word 'jaywalking' means here. If it refers to people crossing roads in city centres where there are pedestrian crossings, then I agree with it. With the proviso that motorists are educated that they must stop to allow pedestrians to cross on designated crossings. And draconian punishment if they don't.

That was brought home to me on our recent UK/Europe holiday - after a couple of years back in Dubai I was startled that motorists gave way to pedestrians on crossings, something that I didn't even think about before we came back here. Here it's the norm for the pedestrian to wait for the road to be completely clear before stepping onto the crossing.

But if 'jaywalking' also applies to the poor fools who try to dash across freeways, that's a different story. I know it's crazy and I know they get killed, but just think about it. You're a labourer on one side of Sheikh Zayed Road and you need to get to the other side. How do you get there? There are no crossings. No bridges or underpasses. So what do you do?

Even if you walk kilometres to the nearest interchange, they're for vehicles not pedestrians.

Putting fences down the centre was never the right answer. They still have no way to cross safely so they dash across anyway and climb the fence.

We know that the majority of road deaths are pedestrians, the problem and the solution have been discussed endlessly. In Dubai we had fifty-six pedestrian deaths in the first six months of 2007. The RTA is saying that it will build seventeen pedestrian bridges and that they're planning to spend more than Dh70 million to construct pedestrian crossings.

Huge traffic interchanges are going up, but constructing simple, easy pedestrian bridges seems to be in the too-hard basket. Surely dozens of crossings could have gone up in a matter of weeks.

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