Labor complaints have tripled in Dubai

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=24§ion=0&article=117601&d=28&m=12&y=2008

Shadiah Abdullah | Arab News


DUBAI: As companies in Dubai announce thousands of layoffs as a result of the economic crisis, Ministry of Labor officials in the emirate are struggling to deal with an unprecedented number of complaints they receive everyday.

From a CEO of a company earning a salary of more than 100,000 dirhams per month to a construction worker with an income of 700 dirhams, the numbers of laborer complaints have tripled since the beginning of November.

No accurate figures of the number of layoffs or complaints are available, as the Ministry of Labor has not released any official figures. But a visit to the ministry’s office revealed long queues of workers who had lost their jobs or had not been paid for the past few months.

An official from the Complaints Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Arab News that he had never handled so many complaints in his career.

“This is the first time since I started working for the ministry 10 years ago that I have across so many complaints in such a short time span.

My desk is full of complaint applications and the situation is the same with all my colleagues. We are handling more than triple the workload we had a few months ago,” he said. Typing offices, where applications for any type of transactions with the government departments are submitted, reported that most of the work they do now is applications for labor card cancellations and complaints against employers.

FULL story at link.

[Double T]

1. Not to worry. Citigroup will provide 8 Billion US Dollars from the US taxpayer bailout............

of Citi, so that Dubai's infrastructure can be built while America's infrastructure crumbles. Workers are being screwed the world over, while the executive management continues to steal obscene compensation for criminal corruption well done.