DUBAI: May Day is not observed in the Gulf countries, but the one that just passed by holds special significance because the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is about to grant labourers — citizens as well as expatriates — the right to form trade unions and bargain collectively.
“A draft labour law will be submitted to the cabinet before summer recess for approval. Workers of various sectors will be represented in a federal trade union after an article is added to the labour law authorising the labour minister to issue regulations for this union,” Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka’abi, Minister for Labour, told reporters.
“We will also create a monitoring authority that would enforce standards in working and living conditions. We’re going to have one union with separate representatives for construction, fishing, agriculture and other industries,” Al Kaabi said. “The law will control how strikes will be conducted. It will make contact with the labourers much easier,” he added.
The trade unions would be responsible for improving the working conditions of UAE citizens and expatriates. They will also work to improve labour relations, ensure regular payment of wages and resolve disputes between workers and employers.
Rima Sabban, a leading academic and sociologist, said: “Both nationals and expatriates have been waiting for this move. This law will help to improve and evolve society as workers and employers will start understanding their rights and responsibilities as they start engaging and bargaining.
“Trade unions have always improved working conditions. From an employer’s point of view, trade unions may slow down work — but that is a narrow vision. More sustainable work is always based on the well-being of the workers,” she told IPS.
The law is expected to include provisions to regulate and legalise peaceful protests by workers. The new regulation will permit a recognised representative of the protesters to talk to and deal with the authorities concerned, so that the latter can get a clear idea of the demands of protesting workers and address the problem accordingly.
But there have been fears and criticism in a country where expatriates, mostly from South Asia and Southeast Asia, constitute more than 80 per cent of the overall population of four million people.
Said an editorial in the English language daily Gulf News on April 25: “The mechanics of the working of trade unions, as initially outlined, raises questions as to how representative of workers these bodies will be. Allegedly, while membership of a trade union will be open to UAE nationals and expatriates, full membership is only available to UAE nationals, with only associate membership to expatriates. Associate members can attend meetings and speak, but will have no right to hold a post on the board of directors.
“With a proposed pyramid organisational structure committees at the base, then trade union associations, and the federation of trade unions at the top it will remain to be seen whether the much maligned expatriate worker seeking redress will get adequate representation, or be a trade union in name only,” it added.
The announcement comes amid growing instances of worker unrests and strikes in the emirates, particularly in Dubai. The New York-based right lobby Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a recent report, said Dubai was witnessing ‘one of the world’s largest construction booms’ but ‘is feeding off its workers — they’re treated as less than human’.
The rights group has called on the United States, European Union and Australia, which are currently negotiating free trade agreements with the UAE, to ‘require improvement of UAE’s labour practices and legal standards before signing such agreements’.
Earlier in the year, the US indicated that it would like to see the UAE introduce labour laws that were consistent with guidelines laid down by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), including the right of association and collective bargaining.
While admitting that enactment of suitable labour laws was required by Washington before a free trade pact could be completed, Al Ka’abi said that to link the recent strikes to free trade talks and the HRW report was beyond logic.
“We do not rule out that the UAE was free from violations committed by firms. But those violations were dealt with in accordance with law and respect for human rights. It is a biased and an unjust act to ignore all the positive efforts being exerted by the UAE and focus on the violations.”
In one of the worst incidents in the region, 2,500 workers rioted at the construction site of Burj Dubai, slated to be the world’s tallest skyscraper, on March 21. Their employer, a British-UAE joint venture called Al-Naboodah Laing O’Rourke, blamed the incident on ‘misinformation and misunderstanding’, adding that the issue had been resolved. Burj Dubai’s owner, Emaar, the real estate powerhouse controlled by the Dubai government, also issued a statement that the incident had nothing to do with the tower and that work was not interrupted.
These and other worker protest marches have attracted international attention. Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement: “It is no surprise that some workers have started rioting in protest. What’s surprising is that the government of the UAE is doing nothing to solve the problem.”
Strongly refuting such charges, Khalid Al Khazraji, undersecretary in the labour ministry, said: “The recent reports in the international media about unstable labour conditions in the country are exaggerated rumours and a deliberate unjustifiable attack. The country is keen on ensuring that each and every expatriate worker in the land has full rights and gets full protection.”
Citing last year’s labour protest figures, he said there were only 30 labour protests involving 10,000 workers. “These figures represent a mere 0.4 per cent of the total number of 2.4 million labourers working in the UAE. It is an insignificant percentage and one that does not justify the exaggerated noise created by some parties and foreign media organisations. In 2006, there have been a total of 13 labour protests since the beginning of this year and all of them were attended to by the authorities concerned which ensured that the workers received their legal rights.”
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which is a global body of national trade unions claiming 155 million members in 154 countries, has said that the UAE government’s move is a positive one but wants to see the law applied sooner rather than later.—Dawn/IPS News Service
