The Right To Work: Life and Death In The Gulf
UPDATE from the Gulf Daily News:
Torture and abuse of domestic workers remains rife in Qatar, as cries for justice from missions and human rights organisations go unheeded. The authorities have so far failed to address the problems faced by thousands of domestic workers by refusing to bring them under the protection of the existing labour law. To aggravate their condition, housemaids who flee their abusive employers are considered as illegals and deported.
In a similar case a Qatari couple walked free despite beating their Indonesian housemaid into an irreversible coma. The woman recently died. A Doha court sentenced the couple to five years’ imprisonment, but they never served the term after agreeing to pay QR300,000 (Dh302,721) to the maid’s family as compensation.
On any given day you can scan the newpapers in the Arabian Gulf countries and see that some of the biggest issues we are all grappling with are related to employment. Unemployment, antiquated laws, inhuman living conditions, unpaid wages, physical abuse and even murder make the headlines on a regular basis here.
The good thing is that these stories ARE in the news and are no longer being hidden under lovely silk carpets imported from Iran. Yes, they are being talked about. And in many cases they are being talked about by the Khaleeji “Captains of Industry” in an effort to get their governments to tackle the many complex issues that arise when 80% of the workforce do not share the rights and responsibilities of the local citizenry. The slow governmental response is perhaps the most frsutrating aspect of all of this but if things keep up like this, they’ll HAVE to respond.
Today’s roundup includes the following story from Gulfnews:
ABU DHABI: The UAE protects the rights of labourers very seriously and has been working on several fronts to improve the conditions and challenges faced by domestic workers, said a senior government official. “Like many responsible countries, we recognise that the protection of domestic workers is a top priority for governments, and we are committed to meeting that at all levels,” said Dr. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs, in a statement. The minister was responding to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on domestic labour in the Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the UAE.
Dr. Gargash said the UAE government is disappointed with both the quality of research and the questionable and generalised approach taken by the Human Rights Watch in tackling this important issue. It is clear that once again the rights body has chosen to ignore many of the positive steps adopted by the UAE in recent months to improve conditions for temporary foreign workers in the country, he added. “We regret that the Human Rights Watch report lacks a credible research methodology. In the future, we encourage the HRW to visit the country and view the progress on the ground before publishing its conclusions,” said Dr Gargash.
“While we also acknowledge that our system is a work in progress, we have and will continue to strive towards ensuring the protection of all people who visit and work in our country and contribute to its many achievements,” he said. “It is also important to note that a large part of the UAE’s population is made up of foreign workers attracted by the positive employment opportunities in this country.”
The minister said the findings in the HRW report seem to be based on a statistically unrepresentative sample of interviews with Sri Lankan women who have worked across the Middle East. Regrettably, the HRW has not fully assessed the real situation on the ground in the UAE nor spoken to any of the officials and government agencies involved in protecting workers’ rights and managing labour conditions in the country before publishing these findings.
Many of the key recommendations outlined by Human Rights Watch in its report have already been met, or are in progress in the UAE. For example:
- The UAE decreed the drafting of a new law last month to protect and regulate the domestic labour force which will offer them the protection given to other workers under UAE Federal Labour Law. This law will be guided by local and international standards and practices and is one of the first of its kind in the region. The new initiative will particularly benefit women which is a key concern of the UAE as part of the state’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
- The UAE from April last year started enforcing mandatory employment contracts to protect the rights of domestic workers in relation to salary, accommodation, healthcare and working hours.
Key features of the employment contract include:
1) The contract is valid for two years;
2) Three copies of the contract in Arabic and English, with each party having one and a third with the residency department;
3) A month’s paid leave once in two years and medical aid provision;
4) Unit at residency department to arbitrate disputes;
5) One-way ticket at end of contract - if the contract is ended by the sponsor before its expiry, a ticket and a month’s salary shall be paid to the worker;
6) Disputes not settled within two weeks to be referred to courts;
7) Fees charged by recruiting agencies to be checked through coordination with consulates of labour exporting countries;
8 ) In case of death of the domestic worker, employer responsible to repatriate the body of the deceased and personal belongings;
9) Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department announced new procedures after the amnesty to ensure that domestic workers have legal status;
10) Heavy fines of up to Dh50,000 for hiring illegal domestic maids will be imposed by Naturalisation and Residency Department.- In May last year, the UAE relaxed the regulations for employees wishing to change jobs and sponsors to facilitate job movement. Apart from helping housemaids amongst others in finding new jobs, the decision is expected to help reduce the number of domestic labourers entering the country and reduce the instances of absconding. Withholding of employee passports is illegal as of December 2001 and is being strongly addressed as a punishable employment practice.
From the Gulf Daily News:
BAHRAIN: Bahraini dairy plant workers striking for higher salaries staged a protest outside the Labour Ministry yesterday over its decision to forward their case to the Justice Ministry. More than 50 Almarai Dairy employees demonstrated outside the ministry for the fifth time in four months. They are currently staging Bahrain’s longest- ever strike, which enters its 15th day today.
The workers first rallied outside the ministry in July in the hope that it would intervene in the pay dispute, but became upset when it referred the matter to the Justice Ministry’s arbitration bureau last month. “This is totally an injustice to us all and illegal in our view, as the ministry should have discussed it with us before such action,” said union head Abdulnabi Alheela “They just followed instructions from the company officials and transferred the case. The demonstration aims to let authorities in the ministry know how we feel about the case transfer.”
The Labour Ministry passed the dispute to the Justice Ministry after talks to broker a deal failed. It earlier expressed regret that the workers resorted to striking despite the efforts it exerted to contain the dispute. It also said the company had accepted a number of demands made by the employees following the first strike in July and had signed an agreement. The company has agreed to a minimum salary of BD200 and other benefits, according to the company’s Riyadh-based regional head of public relations Monther Tayeb. However, the case was referred to the Justice Ministry when the dispute flared up again.
Meanwhile, the ministry claims it is acting under the law by forwarding the dispute to the Justice Ministry for arbitration. Following yesterday’s demonstration it highlighted Article 135 of the Labour Law, which says: “In the event when the mediator fails to settle the dispute entirely within a period of 15 days of receipt of the application for conciliation by the ministry, he shall record in writing a statement of the outcome of the conciliation proceedings and the reasons for the failure and shall transmit all the documents relating to the dispute to the Justice Ministry for submission to an arbitration board.”
The matter is now scheduled for discussion at the Justice Ministry tomorrow. The Bahraini, Indian and Sri Lankan employees accuse the company of making major profits while denying them proper salaries, overtime payments, proper weekends and time off for public holidays.
And sadly this one from The Peninsula:
DOHA: An Egyptian couple have been accused of torturing to death a 24-year-old Filipina housemaid, a local Arabic daily has reported.The woman, who was employed with the family for 14 months, died after a horrifying sequence of abuse and torture, whereby she suffered burns and severe beatings, the Al Rayah daily reported quoting a police report. The two Egyptians, whose names were not disclosed, are in their thirties and the husband was employed as a manager for a construction company.
It is alleged the woman called in the police and said she found her maid inside the toilet dead. The police detained her and her husband for questioning. There were burn injuries all over the maid’s body and a medical report described these as ‘imprints of torture’. The report said one of her finger nails was also removed. Investigator also found blood stains on the walls and curtains of the apartment.
