By IANS
Dubai : About 750 overseas workers, most of them Indians and employed in a Bahrain construction company, have gone on strike since Monday, demanding higher pay.
The workers, also including Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, have said they were paid between 60 and 80 Bahraini dinars (BD) a month by their employer, Almoayyed Conracting, and threatened not to return to work unless they get a better deal.
“We are almost 700 workers, including masons, welders and others, at the labour camp in East Eker,” one of the striking workers told the Gulf Daily News on condition of anonymity.
“Our basic salary for a month ranges from BD60 to BD85, but we want it raised to between BD100 and BD120 – that is by nearly BD40.”
Another worker alleged that although the company pays some of the most competitive salaries to its skilled and office staff, it did not compensate the workers on the sites on similar lines.
“Nobody wants to think about us, toiling long hours in the harsh climate here,” he said.
“We are right to think we deserve a raise because if it was not for us, none of the company’s projects would have been completed.”
Meanwhile, the company, according to the newspaper, has denied this and said that the workers’ salaries range from BD75 to BD150.
A company spokesman accused the workers of staging the protest for reasons other than salaries.
“I believe that someone is behind this incident and has influenced the workers, otherwise they wouldn’t do something like this,” he was quoted as saying.
“Our minimum basic salary for workers is BD75 and it goes up to BD150, plus overtime and accommodation,” he said.
“I can assure you that no company in Bahrain pays their workers anything less than BD75 – just like us.”
The strike has again brought to focus the plight of workers in the booming construction industry across the Gulf nations.
The rising rupee and depreciation of most of the dollar-pegged Gulf currencies have added to the woes of the workers.
“Now, with Bahrain’s inflation and the Indian rupee getting stronger, we cannot even manage to send home BD20,” another worker told the daily.