What is in store for EK drivers ?
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Join Date: May 2002
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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.
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.
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Are you sure that the hourly rate you quoted is correct. 25 dirhams an hour puts labourers on 1,000 dirhams a week for a 40 hour week (which they would never work it is more like a 12 hour day 6 days a week, so a 72 hour week), or 4,000 dirhams a month. I think you actually mean they got a payrise from 2.50 dirhams an hour up to 2.7 dirhams an hour. 
So I think you will find the increase is 2.8 UK pence per hour.
Your point is right though it is modern day slavery, and it is disgusting, but hey how much do we pay our housemaids and nannys so I guess we are all part of the problem.
So I think you will find the increase is 2.8 UK pence per hour.
Your point is right though it is modern day slavery, and it is disgusting, but hey how much do we pay our housemaids and nannys so I guess we are all part of the problem.
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Yeh I just checked the article in the Gulf News, so more like 2 dirhams an hour based on a 12 hour day. And they have to be flown to and from their place of hire once every 2 years for their time off. That sucks.
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That's probably why Companies like Emaar can make a 50% profit from turnover.
Cheap labour, cheap land, cheap fixtures and fittings = max profit! What was this years profit............1.7 billion dirhams. That's profit remember!
What clever people these Company directors must be.
Cheap labour, cheap land, cheap fixtures and fittings = max profit! What was this years profit............1.7 billion dirhams. That's profit remember!
What clever people these Company directors must be.
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Yeh and the stingy bastards give a 20 fil dividend on shares worth 12 dirhams (but quickly dropping). 
And its not probably why they can make the profit they make, it absolutely is the reason why. If it wasn't for the slave labour the Burj Dubai would never be able to be built. There is just no possible way that in Australia, or the U.S or Europe with the wages that have to be paid there, a project like the Burj Dubai (or any of the Palm projects, or the World project etc etc) would be economically viable.
And its not probably why they can make the profit they make, it absolutely is the reason why. If it wasn't for the slave labour the Burj Dubai would never be able to be built. There is just no possible way that in Australia, or the U.S or Europe with the wages that have to be paid there, a project like the Burj Dubai (or any of the Palm projects, or the World project etc etc) would be economically viable.
