Obaid Rashid Al Zahmi, Assistant Under-Secretary at the MoL, told Khaleej Times that the ministry had penalised the company because it had breached the labour law.

“We have given the company’s management a one-month deadline to settle the labourers’ dues,” Al Zahmi pointed out.

According to the workers, they have not been paid their salaries for four months now, and their labour cards had expired some six months ago.

Their visas and health cards had also expired, they alleged.

The workers of the Abu Dhabi-based company came to the ministry’s office only after they saw no other way of getting their dues.