Workers left in lurch after employer flees

Employees have now made this container their home.

Over 100 employees of a leading food trading group headquartered in Dubai have been left in the lurch after their employer allegedly fled the UAE.
According to sources, the owner of the company, a reputed member of the Indian Sikh community here, allegedly fled the country after taking loans of hundreds of millions of dirhams.
A senior official with the Dubai Municipality's Food Safety Department said inspectors recently found that the food businesses under the group had been shut after the company went bankrupt.
A telephone operator at the company's main office in Rashidiya, however, said the employer and his family had gone to India due to a medical emergency and are expected to be back next month. No other spokesperson was available for comment at the time of filing this report.
The group has about seven companies under its umbrella in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ajman, all of which are engaged in import, export and distribution of foodstuff, especially frozen food.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, many workers at the company told Khaleej Times the operations at the main offices and facilities of the group stopped after November 21.
With no work and salary since last month, a dozen workers in the storage facility in Al Quoz have been sleeping in a shipping container and the veranda of the facility for the past two weeks. They said they were evicted from their accommodation after they failed to pay the rents.
"We have no money ... We didn't know where to go and we came to the office to stay here," said one worker.
"It's very cold at night and there are so many mosquitoes ... It's really hard to sleep here," said another worker.
The workers said a real estate group has taken over the management of the company and is reportedly sending the employees back home after forcing them to resign and without paying their end of service benefits or even providing them with air tickets.
One employee said: "We got the November salary by December 5 and then we were made to sign some papers ... Later we realised they were resignation letters."
"There are people who have worked for over 18 to 20 years in this company. It is very unfair to send those people, and all of us, without paying our gratuity and other benefits," said another worker.
According to the employees, the new management under another influential member of the Indian community, has cleared most of the food stock in the storage facilities.
They said the new employer had been apparently given the power to handle all the businesses that belonged to their previous boss.
The comparatively new firm in Ajman has been shut and over 30 employees have already been sent back to their home countries, said the workers hailing primarily from India, Pakistan and Nepal.
They said none of them complained to the labour department or the diplomatic missions of their countries for fear of the "big bosses".
However, on Sunday, they said they will report the issue to the labour ministry on Monday.
sajila@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE