NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Workers get mandatory break from summer sun
ABU DHABI - MAY 28: Employers must allow workers to rest for two and a half hours in the afternoon during July and August to avoid the searing heat, according to a Ministry of Labour decree issued yesterday.
The summer work hours regulations, which have changed little from last year, stipulate that workers in the open must break from 12.30pm to 3pm. Employers must also provide a shaded area for workers to rest in, the ruling passed by Saqr Ghobash, the Minister of Labour, said.
There are some exemptions to the regulations, including if for “technical reasons” it is “imperative that work should continue without interruption”, the ruling said. This includes the laying of asphalt and concrete and work necessary to prevent public hazards, such as repair of water and electricity supply. Work for the “smooth flow of traffic and other services” and “any other tasks approved by the director general of the ministry”, are also exempt.
If workers have to continue through the heat of the day then companies must provide ample water, drinks, on site first aid and shade and cooling devices.
“It’s very important that this break is enforced in the peak of the heat,” said Dr Belal Hashim, from Lifeline Healthcare, which treats between 70 and 100 labourers each day.
“There can be many complications from the heat and the direct sun, including dehydration, heat exhaustion, loss of consciousness and, in the worst cases, even death.”
Dr Hashim said he thought the break should begin earlier, at 11.30am, when the heat was already intense. “If someone faints on a construction site that can be very dangerous, especially if they are working on a high level,” he said.
The Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD) and Ministry of Labour earlier this month launched a Safety in the Heat campaign, which includes educational workshops on the dangers of working outdoors during the summer months.
Health and labour officials will carry out spot checks on work sites during the summer to ensure that companies are taking proper care of their employees.
There are strong penalties for any company caught breaking the regulations. For a first offence the employer is fined Dh10,000 (US$2,725) and is banned from issuing new labour permits for a period of three months. The punishment is doubled to a Dh20,000 fine and a six-month ban on new work permits for a second offence, and if a company breaks the rules for a third time it will be fined Dh30,000 and not allowed to issue new permits for one year.
The ruling also requires that daily work schedules are posted in public spaces in both Arabic and a language understood by the workers. Employers should also provide safety equipment to protect workers from occupational hazards.
Workers should work for a maximum of eight hours a day, and if they are required to work longer should be paid at overtime rates, the ruling said.
The midday break was introduced in 2005 with a four-hour rest period, but this was reduced to two and a half hours the following year. Last year officials said 99 per cent of companies were abiding by the regulations, compared with 75 per cent when the break was first introduced.
E-mail con men use UAE jobs lure
UAE - MAY 27: Con men are targeting people who have lost their jobs by e-mailing offers of high-paying work in the UAE.
An e-mail being sent around the world claims to be from a barrister representing the International Tourism Group–Emirates Travels, based in Abu Dhabi. It touts unspecified but well-paid work and asks for US$1,270 (Dh4,700) in processing fees – which, it promises, will be refunded as soon as the paperwork has been approved.
Mohammed Fudzail is one of those who received the phoney job offer this month, and he is warning people not to respond.
“Please be forewarned that it is a scam,” he said.
The e-mail follows the usual pattern of fee-advance scams, also known as 419 or Nigerian frauds.
The “419” refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with such frauds.
These scams often involve offers of generous commissions in return for helping to get large sums of money out of African countries. People who respond are asked to pay modest processing fees to enable larger sums to be transferred – which, of course, they never are.
Following widespread publicity, the scammers have apparently modified their pitch. And because of its oil wealth, the UAE has become one of the nations they often use to entice would-be victims.
Joe Wein, a software developer and campaigner against spam and 419 fraud, has compiled a list of more than 30 fictitious UAE names, titles and addresses that have been used by scammers whose frauds include fake job offers, fictitious lottery wins and concocted claims of unpaid contractors.
Mr Fudzail’s fraudulent UAE job offer asked him to forward $180 for a visa processing fee, $250 for a work permit fee, $240 for a visa courier dispatch fee, $320 for a residence permit fee and $280 for “release documents”, totalling $1,270.
Woman in Dubai is charged with buying a baby
DUBAI - MAY 28: An American woman has been charged with buying a baby and trying to cover up the sale by claiming the infant was dumped on her doorstep.
A Canadian co-defendant was charged with criminal complicity. Both women pleaded not guilty. The American woman, LM, 46, is accused by prosecutors of obtaining a child by fraudulent means, namely by paying the female owner of a women’s shelter, CM, an undisclosed sum of money for the child, according to documents submitted to the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance. The incident is said to have occurred in 2005; the investigation began last year when police received information that CM was buying unwanted children and then reselling them.
LM is charged with misleading the Dubai Sharia Court into believing she found an unidentified male baby on her door step, forging a child fostering application and using that document to obtain a Liberian passport for the child.
Prosecutors, citing recordings of the defendant’s telephone conversations with CM, say CM was heard instructing LM to mislead authorities by telling them she found the baby on her doorstep even though the Canadian, SF, 55, brought the child to LM after CM took him away from his natural mother, who, CM claimed, had become pregnant out of wedlock and did not wish to keep the child. The Russian mother, IK, acknowledged to police that she became pregnant following an illicit affair. She said CM helped her and paid her hospital bills at a private hospital in Al Ain and that CM sent a Somali woman named Zakhira to take the baby.
She said Zakhira told her that CM ordered the removal of the baby and that she would never see him again.
IK said a European woman named Linda called her later to ask about her medical history.
When she asked why, Linda said she needed the information because she was taking care of her baby, for which she had paid a large sum of money to CM.
During police questioning, LM admitted that CM told her to tell authorities that she found the child at the doorstep of her Dubai home and that she did not know who his parents where.
LM was told by CM that the child belonged to an Indonesian woman resident in Dhaidh, in Sharjah, who became pregnant out of wedlock and did not want the child.
An undercover police officer, identified only as AY, told prosecutors in his written statement that in March 2008 he received information that CM was using a women’s shelter in Umm Suqeim for illegal activities, buying unwanted children from their families and selling them to people who wanted children.
AY said he learnt that IK had come into contact with C M through a Russian friend, NN, 42, a teacher, and that CM helped IK give birth in the UAE and took her into the shelter afterwards.
“When IK would ask CM about her baby CM would threaten her and tell her she would inform police that she gave birth as a result of an illicit relationship,” AY said in his statement.
AY said he presented this information to his superiors, who obtained an order from prosecutors to tap CM’s mobile phone as well as the phones of LM and SF, the Canadian.
In recorded conversations between the defendants and CM, police learnt that SF was the person who actually left the child on LM’s doorstep. Police also learnt that LM filed a police report fraudulently claiming that an unidentified child had been left at her doorstep, and used that report to apply before the Sharia Court to foster the child.
The case was adjourned until June 14, when the defence will present its case.