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Workers call for better treatment by medical centre

MOHAMMAD Jamal of Dubai called Khaleej Times to complain against Prime Medical Centre (PMC) located at Al Quoz. He said PMC has contracts with many companies whose labourers they treat.

Many sick labourers visit the PMC for treatment but they are very badly treated. They also treat independent patients who do not belong to any company. PMC usually treats those patients well as that brings in good money. Labourers, on the other hand, are treated like animals. They are told to wait outside the centre and not allowed in.

My question is that if PMC is ill equipped to handle a huge number of patients or doesn't want to, then why does it sign contracts with different companies to treat their labourers?"

Reply

SYED from Prime Medical Centre replied: "Al Quoz centre is an exclusive corporate medical centre established to render optimum service to the staff and labour of the contracted companies. Our staff and Insurance patients are taken care of at our Deira and Jumeira branches.

Every patient coming to Prime Medical Centre is given due importance and medical care. Many patients come to Al Quoz centre either to avoid their routine work or to avail sick leave. This is due to bad climatic conditions, which are encountered only in the months of July and August.

Patients wait outside the medical centre even after consulting the doctor awaiting transportation from the respective companies. When PMC signs contracts with companies it first analyses their employee strength and then plans to render service accordingly.

In order to render optimum service to all the contracted companies, a team of General Physicians visit the camp sites of all the companies on a daily basis and at multiple locations, so that immediate medical attention could be given to all the ailing patients.

As part of our motto of 'Personalised care Personally', our doctors accompany all emergency patients to the government hospital in order to give optimum medical care. This is seen quite often during summer as a lot of labourers suffer from heat or sunstroke.

Guards' woes

IT definitely appears that the security guards working in Dubai are facing a myriad of problems. Khaleej Times Hotline received a large number of calls from security guards working in different companies. Rahman (name changed on request), a security guard working in Group4 Securicor company, is the latest security guard to lodge his complaint on the hotline.

According to Rahman, he has been working with the company for the last three years and never got any increment.

"For the last three years Iam working for the company and have been drawing a salary of Dh 900 per month. I work 14 hours a day. Even though I pleaded to the company to increase my salary several times in the past, they failed to comply with my requests.”

Reply

KHALEEJ Times contacted the company management. An official said: "We give increments to the employees upon the recommendation by the employing company. The increments are based on their performance. We pay the salary on time as mentioned in the labour contract and according to the UAE labour laws."

He denied the allegation that the employees are forced to work 14 hours a day. "We have a shift system wherein employees work 12 hours a day. If one works for 14 hours that means the other staff work for 10 hours, which is never the case. We pay upto three hours overtime daily to each of our employees when they work for 12 hours," he added.

Faulty machines

ZULFIKHAR Ali called up Khaleej Times to complain about the vending machines of Pepsi softdrink products along Naser Square. Without giving any specific numbers, Ali said a number of vending machines were not working properly in the area.

"When a coin is inserted in the slot of the machines, the money gets stuck but the soft drinks are not dispensed," Ali said.

He, however, failed to answer if he had reported the matter to Dubai Refreshments, the sole franchisee and distributor for Pepsi Co products in the UAE.

Reply

IN a telephonic inquiry with Dubai Refreshments, Khaleej Times was told that each vending machine located across the emirate has a posted notice, indicating the telephone number that a customer can call if a machine is malfunctioning.

Once the number is dialled and a complaint is filed, the company immediately sends a technician to repair the machine.

Likewise, coins that have been stuck in the machine will be returned to customers.