\"Unpaid Indian workers fight for survival in UAE labour camp\"-case study Ashwa
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"Unpaid Indian workers fight for survival in UAE labour camp"-case study
Ashwani Kumar/Abu Dhabi
Filed on August 11, 2016 | Last updated on August 11, 2016 at 07.04 am
The workers have not been paid for 10 months; they are looking towards their country and Minister Sushma Swaraj for help.
Many workers have been stuck in a quandary at a labour camp in Abu Dhabi's Mussafah.
As many as 25 workers, mostly Indians, with Legend Project Contracting LLC haven't been paid for more than 10 months and are struggling to survive.
The contracting firm is part of the Legend Project Group which is run by Syrian Abdul Mateen Alali, the general manager of the company. The company, according to workers, doesn't have any new project since March and won't even return their passports.
It is noteworthy that the validity of visa of most workers has expired and they fear that that would result in them getting heavily fined after they get their passports because of their failure to renew their visa.
They are - Nand Kishor Prasad, Dilip Singh, Udit Narayan Gupta, Ravinder Kumar Shah, Brijeesh Tiwari and Nagendra Singh.
Most are working with this firm for two to three years.
Hari Shankar Singh, who died due to a heart-attack, last month was their colleague. The company didn't bother to fund his repatriation process and also forgot to pay him his pending dues.
"When a dead hasn't been offered his dues then what expectations can we foster," asks Nand Kishor Prasad.
Commenting on the ordeal, from where their UAE dreams started to go wrong, he said, "The company had no work for some time.
"When we asked them to send us back, they told us since we were on a Dubai visa, they will change it to Abu Dhabi visa as we were working here. They said this will help us return back to India easily. They took our resident identity cards too and made us sign papers saying that those were to transfer our visa from Dubai to Abu Dhabi.
"They got our visas cancelled and then we haven't heard from the company. Visas of three of us got expired last year itself."
The workers added that for the past few months they didn't have any work but they are 'ordered' by the company not to leave their Mussafah 43 camp.
"Neither work nor respite. We are stuck here. Get us out of here," Prasad pleads.
"We are all labourers. I used to get Dh1,700 and others Dh1,300. Our salaries are pending from last October. But we told the company that we don't want money - just return our passports and clear our visa dues.
"We just want to return home to our family," the workers say that Abdul Mateen Alali is the one who runs everything.
According to the workers, Alali 'assures' them that 'everything will be alright'.
"The Syrian is under a huge debt and he may have actually returned back to his country, which is why we went to court, they said.
"In January, we went to Mussafah Labour Court but were told since our visa is stamped from Dubai, we need to fight case there, so we went to Dubai Labour Court in Al Qusais. We were given the first hearing date for March. The case was later moved to the High Court. The company representative is yet to turn up in court. We have next hearing this month," Prasad says.
"Our head office (Project Contracting) is in Abu Dhabi. The court told us that the company is registered as an Al Quoz, Dubai, firm. Maybe the company has licence issued in same name from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Also, we called the Indian Workers' Resource Centre (IWRC) and registered a complaint against the company.
please help me in doing this homework- case study
the requirement :
- create two questions and answers them.
Explanation / Answer
Question 1:
What should be done to protect foreign employees from being harassed while their working tenure in abroad?
Answer
The government of the host countries must be very vigilant and should frame very strict rules regarding the foreign employee’s database maintenance. There should be a very strict policy making it necessary for the companies hiring foreign employees to regularly update their records with the government offices. Doing this will give the respective authorities a chance to verify any irregularities in the staffing of foreign employees. Also, the respective authorities must make surprise inspection visits for any irregularities.
Question 2:
Should the trial of employment harassment in foreign countries be given high importance?
Answer
Yes, it is because this is a case purporting to international labour laws. Any disputes or irregularities from either countries side may lead to poor diplomatic relations leading to future issues. Any irregularities must be given high importance to keep the country relations smooth and keep the status of country intact. It is because people prohibit to work in such countries, once certain cases of negligence gets highlighted.
The best remedy for such cases can be formation of special courts relating to international labour issues which gives very fast results.
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