NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE ; THE NATIONAL

Ministry of Labour targets violations

DUBAI - MARCH 02: Government inspectors have visited more than 1,800 worksites and labour camps and say they found unpaid and underpaid workers, overcrowded housing and other violations of labour law.

The Ministry of Labour inspected camps housing more than 100 employees each, construction sites, factories and other private companies.

Abdelrazaq Qambar, the ministry’s chief inspector, said at a meeting with representatives of private companies that some firms, to cut costs, have added as much as 40 per cent to the population of the camps. Some companies, he said, have cut meals to workers from three a day to one.

“When we started inspecting companies in the country and labour camps we expected to see them empty,” Mr Qambar said. “But, on the contrary, labour camps are overcrowded due to companies looking to cut costs and keep staff in the UAE for when the situation improves.”

“We will not release figures but the problem is not specific to Dubai and the number of violations are equally distributed for each violation,” he said on the sidelines of yesterday’s meeting. “However, late payment and reduction in wages are the most two consistent violations.”

Some companies have given workers “unpaid leave” or terminated their employment without paying the legally required end-of-service benefits.

The ministry has told companies, some of which it says are struggling to meet their obligations because of the global recession, that breaches of the laws will not be tolerated.

Mr Qambar said companies would have all their transactions with the ministry put on hold until they resolved their violations of labour law. If they do not do so, the ministry said it would refer cases to the courts.

The ministry especially wants companies that have put workers on unpaid leave to either find them new jobs or terminate their visas and send them home, said Jasim al Banna, head of the ministry’s legal affairs department.“What’s the point of leaving people with nothing to do here? This is not the policy of the UAE. If you are not working, you have no business here.”

Mr Qambar said at the meeting the ministry is considering revising the law on automatic stand-down periods as part of a wider strategy to improve the flow of labour force and retaining skilled workers in the country.

A law firm that represents many of the UAE’s biggest firms said private companies would no longer give open-ended contracts to employees.

Alex McGeoch, head of employment at Hadef, said: “What is going on is unprecedented. Before the immediate global downturn, a lot of interest evolved around upgrading employment documentation like employee share option plans. Now companies are looking at ways of reducing staff and safeguarding their business if this happens again.”

He said companies had found it difficult to navigate the labour law during the downturn. “We are getting calls on daily basis from companies asking how to manage, asking what is the right and appropriate way to manage terminations.”

Hundreds of labourers rescued from blaze

ABU DHABI - MARCH 02: More than a thousand men had to be rescued when a fire broke out amid mobile homes at a labour camp in Khalifa City A.

A total of 32 out of 66 homes caught fire due to strong winds before the blaze was brought under control in the early hours of yesterday.

Amid reports of explosions, many labourers ran out of their burning homes, carrying what possessions they could, and in some cases dragging their mattresses behind them.

With around 32 labourers sharing each home, more than a thousand men were left homeless, but no injuries were reported.

The camp is adjacent to a construction site near the Etihad buildings.

Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation, men who escaped from the first burning caravans believe a gas cylinder may have exploded while someone was cooking.

Eyewitnesses said many of the workers squeezed into the remaining caravans that were already filled to capacity, while others waited for alternative accommodation to be provided by their employers.

“The 66 caravans making up the housing complex of these labourers are attached to one another very closely; their proximity aided the fire in spreading so quickly,” said Capt Mohammed al Sahi, director of the rescue and rapid intervention department at Abu Dhabi police.

“The quick interventions of our fire department saved the lives of more than 1,000 men.”

Lt Khalid Labadi, who had been overseeing the rescue, said the combined efforts of men from the Abu Dhabi civil defence department and the fire brigade made the situation salvageable.

“The emergency unit worked fast to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading to all the caravans in the labour camp,” he said. “We organised transportation to move the men to a safer location away from the smoke and fire.”

Authorities at the Abu Dhabi Civil Defence Department urged all companies overseeing construction projects to have firefighting equipment on hand in case of emergencies, and not to be negligent in providing a safe working and living environment for labourers, in a statement issued yesterday.

Traffic Police Prove their Point

UAE - MARCH 02: You log on to the police website, type in your vehicle number, hit enter and hold your breath. It’s the new online game that no one who drives in the UAE can afford not to play: 24 points and you’re out.

It is one year since the introduction of the nationwide black-points scheme and increasing numbers of drivers are taking to the information highway to find out if their number is up and they have been tagged for speeding – or any other of the more than 70 offences for which points are now automatically given, often without the driver’s knowledge.

Some, like Eltra Haider and her husband, check for fines online every night.

“I don’t have any,” said the Pakistani housewife, 48, “touch wood. Only my son has, because of wrong parking. My husband is checking every night. We are very concerned.”

Some drivers who have collected a fine and points receive SMS messages, while others do not, meaning that without checking online on the Abu Dhabi or Dubai police websites, a driver might not find out he is in debt, possibly to the tune of thousands of dirhams, and that his car is wanted for confiscation until he tries to renew his driving licence or vehicle registration.

Mohammad al Abed, a 45-year-old engineering manager from Jordan, said he had checked the Abu Dhabi Police website only last week and discovered he owed a Dh700 (US$190) fine for speeding at more than 30kph over the limit. The offence was dated Jan 2 but had not appeared on the site when he last checked, the week before.

“I thought they would send me a message by my mobile,” he said. “But I did not receive anything.”

Mohammad Ali, 52, speaking days before he was due to renew the registration of his white Hyundai 4x4, was relieved to discover he had no outstanding points or fines when The National ran his traffic ID and vehicle plate number through the Abu Dhabi Police online fines payment system.

“Hamdillah,” he said. He had always been a careful driver but had been particularly cautious since the introduction of the points system.

The good news is that the scheme seems to be achieving its aim of making the roads safer.

Speeding, for instance, is no longer a gamble worth taking. Before the points scheme was introduced, if you were late for an appointment and put your foot down the worst you faced was a Dh200 fine; now, exceeding the limit by more than 60kph will cost Dh1,000 and 12 black points, and lead to the confiscation of your car for 30 days.

Last year, during the first month of the black-points scheme, Abu Dhabi Police handed out 14,000 tickets and banned 111 motorists, mainly drink-drivers and lorry drivers caught overtaking recklessly.

By January this year, police said, the number of dead and injured on the roads of Abu Dhabi had dropped year-on-year by 15 per cent, a success that officers attributed to a range of initiatives, including the black-points scheme and bigger fines across the board.

Yesterday, Abu Dhabi Police celebrated the first birthday of the points scheme by hailing it a success.

“The black-points system is a major factor of many which helped reducing traffic accidents over the last year,” said Capt Haji al Baloushi, the traffic support manager at Abu Dhabi Police traffic and patrols department, who pointed out the success had come at a time when the number of vehicles on the roads was increasing.

The police, he said, were working “under a general strategy to reduce traffic accidents by 4 per cent a year, over five years. Last year we stood out, in international terms, by reducing accidents by 15 per cent and we hope this year will have better results but we need people to understand that abiding by the rules helps us all stay safe”.

The force yesterday released figures showing that in the year since the scheme was launched fines and black points had been imposed for more than 1,400 violations, including careless driving (797 cases), dangerous driving (107) and racing (200). In 358 cases black points were given to drivers who had “run away” from traffic police, an ill-advised course of action that leads to 12 black points, an Dh800 fine and a month-long confiscation of vehicle.

The latest figures from Dubai show that in the nine months between the introduction of the scheme last March and the end of December, 1,745 drivers lost their licences under the points scheme. Another 200 drivers have suspensions hanging over them but don’t know it yet, say police. To find out if you are one of them, log on and check police websites – either www.adpolice.gov.ae/Ticketsen/ or www.dubaipolice.gov.ae.

If a driver accumulates 24 points in a year they lose their licence – for three months on the first occasion, six months on the second and for a year on the third, in which case the driver must also undergo retraining to get it back.

Points are awarded for more than 70 offences, from the trivial to the most serious. Tooting your horn “in a disturbing way” is worth two points, along with a Dh100 fine, while taxi drivers face three points and a Dh100 fine if a passenger opens a door on the left side of the vehicle.

But four major offences are each worth 24 points on their own: driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol; failing to stop after an accident in which someone has been injured; driving a vehicle without number plates and, for lorry drivers, overtaking dangerously. In each case the vehicle is confiscated for 60 days.

Another six offences will cost a driver 12 points and the loss of their vehicle for 30 days, including causing death; racing; reckless driving; and exceeding the speed limit by 60kph.

Black points expire after a year but all may not be lost if you find yourself perilously close to 24. Dubai has announced that a driver can wipe out eight points at a stroke by volunteering for a retraining course at an officially approved driving school. It is understood that Abu Dhabi is considering a similar scheme.

Rashed al Tenaiji was proud to say he had accrued only two points, for parking in a prohibited place, an offence that also carries a Dh200 fine. Nevertheless, he felt the roads were safer thanks to black points.

“The drivers now are much better,” said the 24-year-old Emirati. “They respond better to the chance of losing their licence.”

Not everyone likes to keep tabs on their points. Mario, 39, who requested his last name be withheld, said he avoided checking because he was afraid of what he would find out. Only recently he discovered he had been caught for exceeding the speed limit by more than 60kph when the police contacted him. It cost him 12 points, a Dh1,000 fine and his car for 30 days.

On the other hand, he is saving money. Before the introduction of black points, he said, he lost an average of Dh1,000 a month in fines.

“Before, it was a part of life,” said the man, who has lived in Abu Dhabi for 30 years. With 12 points to his name, he said, he was now driving more cautiously.

“It is too expensive and losing your licence is not a good option for me,” he said. “With all due respect to the system, I think it does work and I actually think it should be more strict in penalising people for different types of speeding violations.”

‘Doctors’ who prey on poverty

DUBAI - MARCH 02: Rogue doctors are routinely offering cheap and improper treatment to construction workers in Dubai and distributing medicine that has been imported illegally.

“We are aware that there are fraudulent practices,” said Dr Essa Kazim, the head of health regulation at the Dubai Health Authority (DHA). “We have regular inspections, and when we do find them practising against the law of the country, necessary legal action is taken.”

In a related matter, Dubai Police said they had charged two men with selling fake health certificates to labourers.

In the construction labour camps the rogue doctors are known as “compounders”, a colloquial Indian term for an unlicensed medical practitioner. There are also those who masquerade as experts in ayurveda, the Hindu practice of balancing diet, herbal treatment and yoga, according to legitimate Indian doctors with knowledge of the situation in the camps. They claim to bring with them oils and potions from “back home” to cure aches and pains and operate out of makeshift clinics in the industrial areas between Dubai and Sharjah, Karama, Deira and Jebel Ali.

Proceeding on the assumption that labourers are generally more comfortable approaching holistic doctors, as they would in their homelands, the unlicensed practitioners are said to offer a variety of inexpensive services – costing Dh10 (US$2.70) to Dh50 – but which may involve “secret oils” and bandages made from natural products.

A fracture, for example, may be treated with massage oils made from a thick paste of mustard oil, barks and leaves, followed by a wrap with a banana leaf or a bamboo mat, or other leaves that cling tightly to the skin.

They may also provide temporary relief to the swelling or oedema through massage. In recommending that the wrap remain in place for about four weeks, they cover the period during which the bones would tend to heal anyway.

“These people, the compounders, they will charge you per injection,” said M Sriram, a construction worker who lives in Jebel Ali. “Or give you some medicines that don’t work. They will always charge per visit that will increase with every visit. You know you are going to a compounder, because the fees are less compared to the real doctors.”

A labourer without health insurance would currently pay Dh100 to Dh400 for a consultation with a general practitioner at a private clinic. The cost of any tests and medications would be extra. Some clinics have corporate deals, which might bring the visit fee down to about Dh50, to be covered by the company or the worker. But many companies do not have such deals, or even offer health insurance, so their workers are left to find alternative care.

“These people are exploiting a situation whereby perhaps labourers have limited access time and financial ability to access health care and get medication,” Dr Kazim said. “Once the DHA policies fully kick in, in three or four years’ time, it will significantly decrease, if not abolish all together, this fraudulent practice.”

Doctors working with labourers also said they were aware of these fraudulent practitioners and the damage they were causing. But they said many labourers felt they had no choice but to seek a second-rate service.

Mr Sriram said that although his camp in Jebel Ali was visited monthly by a doctor who did regular checkups, there were other camps around him where such facilities were not provided.

And while those masquerading as doctors do not enter the camps, they are often available on reference from other labourers who visit them.

It is especially difficult for those who work illegally on construction sites, he said.

Workers who do not have the proper paperwork or are working illegally are often forced to use unlicensed medical clinics. The illegal workers will not be treated in government centres, unless it is an emergency.

“There are things that can’t be helped,” Mr Srirham said, “like allergies from working with cement. The dust makes a lot of them sick so they have no choice. It is their weakness and it has to be cured so they visit these doctors. They are under obligation when they visit, so they have to pay. They also go for coughs and cold and sometimes fever. But mostly it is related to allergies.”

Dr Khaliq Raza Khan, of the Dr Ismail Medical Centre in Al Quoz, said that for most labourers, who earn minimal salaries, money came first and medical treatment second.

As well as those prescribing cheap medications there are also those who perform massages, he said, which can do more harm than good.

“If someone massages a fracture it becomes more painful and can be displaced,” he said. “This is very bad treatment.”

Shock over stabbing of woman in Ibn Battuta car park

DUBAI - MARCH 02: A woman whose body was found at one of the city’s busiest malls had been stabbed several times after leaving a gym.

Police were yesterday piecing together her last movements, while those who frequent the popular shopping centre said they were shocked a violent crime could happen in such a public place.

The 40-year-old woman, from Mauritius, had been due to meet a friend at Ibn Battuta Mall on Friday. After she failed to turn up, a search of the car park later in the day found her body next to a car.

The deputy head of Dubai Police, Khamis Muttar al Mazeina, said: “The victim set up a meeting with a friend of hers but when her friend couldn’t find her she called the victim’s husband and they went looking for her.”

The friend, an American woman of French origin who was visiting from abroad, and the husband, a Dutchman, conducted a thorough search of the mall before they found her body.

She was still dressed in gym clothes.

Police say the killing took place at around 2.15pm on Friday. They said they were questioning one person and had reached a breakthrough, but would not elaborate.

At the Fitness First Gym at Ibn Battuta Mall, a member of staff confirmed that the woman had been working out there on the day she died.

Shoppers at the mall said they were shocked to hear of the killing.

“It’s worrying – if you think too much about that sort of thing you just freak out,” said Tamara King, 20, from Georgia.

Her friend, Melanie Oliveria, 17, a resident, said she had heard of very few violent crimes here. “Generally, this is a very safe country compared to most places in the world.”

Mandy White, 52, from the UK, agreed that violent crime here was rare.

“You feel much safer walking around here than in the UK,” she said. “It feels like a very safe place.”

Meanwhile, police yesterday confirmed they had charged the boyfriend of a 30-year-old Myanmarese woman with murder. Her body was found in a manhole metres from her home in Al Nahda last Sunday.

“This was a case involving a woman and her lover. It was a case of indecency,” said Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan, the chief of Dubai Police.

The victim, Han Han Soe, was married with a daughter. Her husband lives in Malaysia and her six-year-old daughter is in Myanmar.

Police say her boyfriend, an Indian man in his 20s, strangled her and disposed of her body in the manhole.

Also this past week, a Nepalese man was killed in the Jaffliya area of Dubai. Police said a Sri Lankan man has been charged.

Health ministry fined for malpractice during childbirth

SHARJAH - MARCH 03: The Ministry of Health has been ordered to pay Dh3million (US$816,000) to the family of a woman left in a coma after a medical error during the delivery of her twin babies.

The Federal Supreme Court ordered the payment after rejecting an appeal by the ministry over the level of compensation.

Dr Reem Abdul Fattah Ahmed, 33, was left incapacitated three years ago when she was operated on at Al Qassimi Hospital after she went into labour with male and female twins.

The babies, Ghasan and Baisan, were delivered safely on Feb 27 2006. They now live with their maternal grandmother.

Dr Ahmed was subsequently sent to Thailand for treatment, but remained in a coma.

The family filed a claim for compensation which, though initially ordered by the courts, was appealed by the ministry. The Supreme Court upheld the level of compensation earlier this week.

Dr Ahmed’s lawyer, Imran al Rawi, said the rejection of the ministry’s appeal meant that payment to the family should be made in the next 10 days.

Mr al Rawi said the family had filed a claim for Dh30m to cover legal bills and reparation for the physical, moral and psychological impact of the error on behalf of Dr Ahmed and her husband, Azmi. Dr Reem’s mother, Umm Ramze, said she could not express the agony her daughter had gone through in the past three years. There was little chance her daughter would recover, she said.

“My daughter has had to undergo several surgeries some related to the stomach and others of arteries,” she said.

“I have also had to look after her as well as her twins. I can’t contemplate the fact that they are growing up without her conscious. But their health is good and are now talking and playing.”

Humaid Mohammed Obaid al Qattami, the Health Minister, had formed a team to investigate the case, an official said.

The minister also ordered that Dr Reem be taken outside the country for treatment at the ministry’s expense.