Friday, 21 November 2008
updated 1 minute ago
22:36 UAE time

YOUR DIRECTORY /

Site workers love their Fridays

by ArabianBusiness.com staff writer on Saturday, 28 April 2007

Construction labourers in Dubai work six-day weeks. On Fridays, Diyal’s friends come over to his camp from various locations around Dubai. They spend the day cooking, eating and making the most of their day off.

Twenty-four-year-old Diyal said he came to Dubai two years ago from the Indian state of Punjab and has been working for a building maintenance company ever since. He lives in Sonapur, a settlement in Dubai that literally means ‘city of gold' in Hindi.

The only time we get to have some fun is on Friday when my friends come over from their camps. On this day, we get up a little later than usual, wash our clothes, bathe and shower, then we cook some food, eat and then we just visit each other.

After eating together, we spend some time talking about work and our lives, and just act silly while laughing and joking.

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We can only do this on a Friday, though, because on a normal workday I wake up in the morning according to what duty I have.

My bus leaves at 5.30am, so by 4.30am I'm up.

Accordingly, I have to brush my teeth, shower, get dressed and have tea all in that time.

As soon as we reach the construction site we start work.

At 9am it's teatime for 15 minutes, then at 12pm we get a one-hour break, and our final tea break is at 3pm. We don't get tea from the company though; it's just called a tea break.

If we want any refreshments we have to buy them ourselves. As for vitamins and things like that, the question doesn't even arise.

When our duty finishes, a lot of us do overtime. We are paid extra for this, but there is no fixed rate - it all depends on what you've agreed to in the contract.

I get home by around 7pm or 8pm. I have to come home and cook as well - we don't get food from the company and there is no company mess area.

By the time we finish cooking and bathing, it's about 11pm, so that's when we go to bed.

I came to Dubai after a recruitment agent selected me. I live with 13 people in my room and all my roommates are Indian. There are Bangladeshi and Pakistani people living nearby, but they try and club nationalities together.

Work is extremely hard here. To make it better we need to have our salaries hiked and our living conditions need to be made better. I haven't been able to save anything and I took a loan back in India to get here.

I think the best thing is when I speak to my family over the phone - that is when I am the happiest.

The worst thing that I've experienced here, though, is that I am not given food even when I have to do night duty.

My dream is to have a nice house and to be able to take care of my family so that they can depend on me.

I think I'm going to be here for another year as my visa is for three years. When I go back home I will spend all the time I've lost with my family and maybe even get married.

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