What is in store for EK drivers ?
Protesting Dubai labourers win massive 8% pay rise
800 protesting construction workers who last week blocked a main road for some hours to publicize their case won their full demand today for an 8% pay rise. However, 250 of the workers who were involved in damaging company property during the protests are to be deported immediately with lifetime bans, meaning they can never return to work in the UAE, and the company is to be granted 250 new work visas at no charge to replace them.
The pay rise takes their hourly rate from 25.00 Dirhams an hour to 27 Dirhams an hour – an increase of 28 UK Pence an hour. One of the striking labourers said it was the first increase he had been given in the 18 years he had worked for the company.
To put this pay rate into perspective, a visitor to Dubai would struggle to find a room in an AVERAGE four star hotel in Dubai for under 1,500.00 Dirhams a night.
Anyone who has seen George Clooney’s recent movie ‘Syriania’ might be forgiven for wondering whether this might not be a case of life imitating art.