ABUDHABI, 30 October 2007 — The United Arab Emirates Cabinet has decided to set up a taskforce to draft a law regulating the relationship between domestic helpers and their sponsors as part of the council’s serious efforts to upgrade legislations dealing with work force.
This move came amid a toughening of the authorities stand against Asian laborers who had downed tools and staged an illegal strike at the weekend over poor wages and working conditions. Hundreds of Asian laborers working in Dubai have been deported authorities said yesterday.
Several thousand manual workers occupied and reportedly vandalized a building before attacking police and vehicles with stones on Saturday.
The government denounced the “barbaric behavior” of the strikers and gave them an ultimatum to return to work or be deported without pay with their contracts canceled and being forbidden to return.
Meanwhile, the proposed law will reconsider rights and duties of both sides so as to guarantee the interests and rights of domestic helpers and their sponsors. According to state news agency WAM, the Cabinet has assigned Lt. Gen. Sheikh Saif ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan, minister of interior, to set up a team made up of representatives from the ministries of interior, labor and justice to enact the legislation.
The team will present proposals on provisions that will be embodied in the domestic helpers’ regulation law.
In setting up regulations regarding rights and duties of domestic helpers and their sponsors, the team will be guided by local and international legislations and systems. As per the existing regulations, absconding domestic helpers will not get their dues and will be punished. It also says the sponsor must ensure the safety of the domestic helper and undertake to treat the worker humanely and with dignity and respect.
If the domestic helper wishes to terminate the two-year contract before it expires, he or she will have to pay for the return ticket home.
It also stress that the domestic helper must perform duties faithfully and efficiently and respect the values, customs and traditions of the country.
To protect overseas domestic helpers, Philippines and Sri Lanka have already set a minimum wage for its citizens employed as domestic workers in foreign countries. Sri Lanka has fixed it at $250 (about AED918) per month in an effort to stop employers from exploiting them.
Philippines had set a minimum salary of $400 (AED1,468) during the first quarter of this year.
Responding to the demonstrations, a senior Labor Ministry official said the prime minister and deputy prime minister had put in place measures to help foreign workers. “But these strikers have crossed a red line that we cannot tolerate,” added the official, Humaid ibn Deemas.
The expulsions were sparked by angry street protests at dawn on Saturday when around 4,000 workers took control of a building in Jebel Ali, the commercial heart of the southwest of Dubai, throwing stones and damaging around 18 cars.
Several thousand other protesters from different building projects joined the demonstration and riot police were deployed to disperse them using water cannons.
— With input from agencies
