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Employer threw us out of camps, say workers

The labourers also lodged a complaint against the company at a police station, which asked both the complainants and the firm's representatives to wait until the ministry settles the matter.

But the ordeal of the workers continued as they were staying in other makeshift wooden shacks of the same company. They were shocked when power supply was disconnected several times, and they were threatened with water supply cuts as well.

The workers said in their complaint they were in bad shape as they had no money to live outside the company's makeshift camps, and had not received their salaries for three months.

The workers' complaint say that their sponsor, Hadeed Al Emarat, has kept four Egyptian workers in service out of the total of 22, provided they pay half the costs of their visa transfer and accept getting a monthly salary of Dh1,200 each.

The remaining workers complained to the Ministry of Labour that they were asked to accept salary cut from Dh1,600 each to Dh900 each. Plaster masters were told that their monthly wage would be reduced from Dh2,600 each to Dh1,050, and they should bear the costs of their residency visa transfer, but they did not agree.

The workers claimed that they have been on the visa of Dima Contracting Company for two years. They claimed that the owner of the two companies is one person, but failed to prove that.

They also claimed that 15 workers from Dima Company used to work with them until July last year. They wondered how executives of Hadeed Al Emarat could disclaim responsibility for them especially since a company executive had earlier solved two complaints lodged by a couple of workers with the ministry last year. They also said that the same executive had identified himself as director of Dima Contracting company before the legal researcher of the Labour Ministry. They further claimed that the company residence in which the workers are staying belongs to the emirates steel company.

The complainants also said that Hadeed Al Emarat has about 250 workers. Most of them are Indians, and the rest are Bangladeshis and Arabs.

Company Director Sameer Aktham Al Dabbas denied the claims of the workers saying that he knew those in charge of the workers at Dima Contracting Company, and the site of the firm. He described their allegations as false, and absolved the company of any responsibility for the workers adding that his company was awarded a sub-contract from Dima Contracting company, and after the end of the project they have asked the workers to evacuate the work site and return to their company.

• UAE