DUBAI — Addressing the grievances of around 1,000 workers at Al Hamed Development and Construction Company who protested over unpaid wages early yesterday, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Dr Ali Abdullah Al Kabi ordered the Dubai-based company to pay four months’ worth of overdue wages within 24 hours and blacklisted it for six months. The minister also warned of further legal action if the company fails to pay on time.
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Around 1,000 workers protested over unpaid wages on Sheikh Zayed Road yesterday morning, disrupting traffic for around two hours.
The minister ordered the blacklisting of the company, including all its branches and partner-owned premises, and the refusal to issue new work visas for the recruitment of further workers for six months. The ministry’s inspection department carried out the orders immediately.
The company is owned by UAE nationals Shaye Al Hamed and Khalid Al Hamed, and Jordanian nationals Mahmoud Khalid and Bassam Abdul Rahim Hamdan.
The minister has formally written to the company requesting it to pay the workers’ salaries within 24 hours.
Additionally, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, following a recent cabinet decision, has fined the company for delaying salary payments.
The minister also warned the companies that if they fail to pay the salaries within the given grace period, the ministry will transfer the workers’ deposits without their permission. Even if the ministry approves the transfer of the workers’ deposits, the companies will be liable for the workers’ financial burden.
The contractor for Nakheel’s palm projects declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Khaleej Times, but AFP quoted a ministry official as saying the company has multiple construction sites and thousands of workers, who it pays on a shift basis.
At around 7:30am yesterday, officers from Dubai Police’s Human Rights Department rushed to the area near Interchange 5 on Sheikh Zayed Road, where around 1,000 workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were protesting and blocking both sides of the highway. The workers marched from the Palm Island Project company site to the highway, resulting in a traffic jam stretching for over a kilometre, causing traffic jams and confusion.
Officials from the Human Rights Bureau rushed to the spot and assured the workers that arrangements would be made to resolve the issue.
Dubai Police notified the Ministry of Labour, which sent inspectors and investigators to the protest sites to investigate workers’ complaints about four months of unpaid salaries and ineffective drinking water at the company’s work camps.
Ministry officials negotiated with numerous worker and company representatives to verify the workers’ claims that the company had not paid the salaries of around 2,000 workers over the past four months.
The ministry’s inspection of the labor camps found that the company’s accommodations included 575 rooms and 960 bathrooms, sufficient to accommodate the number of workers it employed. Ministry inspectors reported that the accommodations provided were adequate and that the drinking water was potable.
“This morning’s drive to the office was not the usual rush from The Gardens in Jebel Ali, where I live, to Al Quoz Interchange 3, where I work,” said Nazir Batoli, general manager of a local company.
“Protesting workers virtually took over Sheikh Zayed Road at Nakheel Interchange and started walking across the five lanes and the shoulder towards Dubai. Police patrols on the scene could not do much to improve the situation as cars piled up on this busy road at that time of the day. To make matters worse, oncoming vehicles heading from Dubai towards Jebel Ali slowed down to see the extraordinary scene, causing traffic jams in the other direction all the way to Dubai Media and Internet City,” he added.
Luckily he had his camera on hand and was able to capture the spectacle.
A witness, who asked not to be named, said the protest began at about 7:30 a.m. and lasted for about two hours. It ended with police transporting protesters from the scene in buses. Witnesses said police were not heavy-handed and handled the situation well.
According to the ministry’s computer system, the company had been suspended from doing business with the ministry four times between early 2004 and yesterday.
Four of the suspensions were due to the companies’ failure to submit regular audit reports to the ministry to prove regular payment of wages, but the ministry lifted the four suspensions once the companies submitted the necessary documents.
The suspensions were imposed on January 13, 2004, March 10, 2004, January 1, 2005 and April 14, 2005. The company submitted its last pay slip to the ministry on April 19. The company was supposed to submit the pay slip three months later in July but failed to do so.
According to a ministry official, companies that employ a large number of people are required to submit payroll statements every three months.
The categories of companies are construction and maintenance, ready-made garment factories, transport services and cleaning services.
New companies that fall under these categories are being asked to submit pay slips. If the companies do not respond, another notice will be sent three months after the first notice. And if the companies continue to ignore the ministry’s requests, the ministry will send another notice the following month. If the companies do not comply, the ministry will issue notices to the companies asking them to act quickly and suspend them, ministry officials said.
He said the computer showed 101 companies that had been suspended by the ministry for failing to submit pay slips. “A suspension means that a company cannot do any business with the ministry,” he explained.