Dubai(IANS) : A hotline to help workers in trouble has been opened by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government, shortly after the cabinet’s call for a review of construction workers’ salaries and living and working conditions.
The Permanent Committee of Labour Affairs (PCLA) has set up the hotline — 800 9119 — following a meeting with representatives of contracting companies whose workers were involved in labour demonstrations recently which had turned violent.
Workers in trouble can call the number and seek assistance from PCLA officials.
Of the around 1.5 million Indians in the UAE, many are working as contract workers in this Gulf nation’s booming construction industry.
“The (contracting) companies have responded positively and urged PCLA officials to pay regular visits to the labour accommodations and suggest improvements, if any,” PCLA head and director of Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) Brigadier Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri told the Khaleej Times.
He said that the PCLA, in cooperation with the construction firms, planned to raise awareness about the committee and its role.
“We want the workers to recognise our logo and that officials bearing the PCLA logo on their uniforms are their well-wishers who will perform the role of a mediator between the workers and the employers,” he said.
He added that several PCLA officials have already been positioned in offices near labour camps in Al Quoz, Al Ghusais and Jebel Ali areas in Dubai to ensure that the officials are easily accessible in times of need.
Last month, around 4,000 workers of a local engineering firm took to the streets demanding better salaries, accommodation and transport services. The protest turned violent near the Jebel Ali port area near here, when police tried to stop the workers.
Ninety Indians were among the 159 workers who were later charged with becoming violent during the protest. The UAE authorities are initiating strict action against them.
According to Al Marri, a special campaign would be launched through posters, pamphlets and documentary films, in cooperation with diplomatic missions, to make the workers aware of the role of the PCLA and its efforts to resolve their problems.
Meanwhile, the deadline for the amnesty scheme for illegal foreign workers, launched by the UAE government in June, expires Thursday.
The scheme was launched for foreigners present illegally in the country, giving them three months to regularise their status according to the law or leave the country without penalty. The immigration authorities here later gave a grace period of two months for the amnesty-seekers, the deadline for which officially expired Nov 2.
Now, it has been further extended till Thursday allowing amnesty-seekers to settle payment of end-of-service dues with their sponsors.
Colonel Nasser Al Awadhi Al Minhali, director of the Naturalisation and Residency Department in Abu Dhabi, told the Khaleej Times that airline bookings and clearance of dues by the workers’ sponsors were the main reasons for extending the deadline.
In a press statement issued Tuesday, UAE’s Minister for Labour Ali bin Abdullah Al Kaabi said that the grace period granted by the cabinet to violators of residency laws for regularisation of their status achieved its objectives.
“The proof is the huge number of violators who benefited from the amnesty either by regularising their status or leaving the country,” he said, adding that his ministry, along with the interior affairs ministry would intensify the campaign to penalise violators all over the country.