E-mail Article
Printer Friendly
Share Article
Al Habtoor to offer new pay rewards for labourers
Al Habtoor, the Middle East construction giant whose workers took to Dubai’s streets to protest against low wages, on Wednesday announced plans for a new incentive scheme that it says will increase labourers’ take-home pay.
“The company is in the process of implementing a new productivity-based incentive scheme, whereby workers are rewarded for increased productivity as opposed to working longer hours,” managing director David Savage said.
“The new scheme is expected to result in workers increasing - not decreasing - their take-home pay.”
The company did not explain how individual workers’ productivity would be measured.
Savage, who separately told Associated Press that all staff had returned to work on Wednesday, said becoming more productive did not always mean working harder.
“We don't necessarily need to work harder, we need to work smarter and more efficiently,” he said.
Hundreds of Dubai labourers took to the streets on Monday to demonstrate against low wages and the lack of overtime pay in the city’s troubled construction sector.
Al Habtoor workers told UAE media outlets on Monday that they were currently being paid between AED500 ($136) and AED700 per month.
“What we are ultimately aiming to achieve with our new scheme is a balance between increased productivity on our sites, improved pay for our workers, and a reduction in the amount of overtime worked,” Savage said.
Al Habtoor Engineering is one of the largest construction and engineering companies in the Middle East. The company’s portfolio includes the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai and the adjacent Jumeirah Beach Hotel.
Among its current projects is the Paris Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi.
Quick Links(Residental)
Filter by address:
Comments 1-10 of 10
Posted by Maryam, Dubai, UAE on 4 September 2009 at 12:38 UAE time
To Mounir Abu Dhabi
Mounir, which labours in UAE get 11000 dhs/ month? Are you insane or dreaming? Oh no, you are insane waiting your time to "customize your answer to get people angry" on such a sad subject! Workers to get more than 700dhs/month that's why they could get so many and raise building from sand.
We are all aware of it and by living here we are all contributing to that extreme human use.
Posted by Leroy on 3 September 2009 at 17:32 UAE time
I'm an Indian and my experience here has affirmed my belief that we Indians put ourselves down.
If we were all together demanded a good salary we would surely all be earning well. But what actually happens is we all are so desperate for our self desires we undercut each other.
So if Westerners get good salaries I say Kudos to them for being able to (as their respective nations) keep a standard and not allow themselves to be taken advantage of.
Posted by Joe Bazooka, Dubai, UK on 3 September 2009 at 16:04 UAE time
Well, Mr Nick, it is very nice for you to have a company which employs 97% non europeans as you say. However, you did not tell us that those 97% non europeans earn what the 3% europeans do!!!!It is a fact here and in most western countries that blue eyes and blond hair carriers earn far more than others as is they are the choosen ones.
Comprende?????
Posted by Dan, Stockholm, Sweden on 3 September 2009 at 16:03 UAE time
I don’t know how the economics in constructions works in Dubai. But I know a construction worker in Sweden earns about 15000 Dirham/month.
The price of apartments and houses are below or way below the prices in Dubai. The quality of building are above or way above that of Dubai. The standard (what’s included in way of machines and extra luxury such as marble and so on) is at least in per with Dubai.
So how come a villa in the middle of nowhere (Ranches) cost 3 times more compare to Stockholm or other capitals of EU? And general prices all over Dubai are still more expensive even after 50% drop in prices?
This when workers cost so little? EXTREM GREED? You tell me.
Posted by Mounir, abu dhabi on 3 September 2009 at 15:41 UAE time
you got the math wrong actually, labourers work 12 hour days 6 days a week, so we're actually talking about a salary that is close to the 11,000 dirham range! Everything else you said applies perfectly though.
As for the DWF, id love to join but im a person that prefers to make love and not war (waits for everyone on here to bash me on that too!)
I spent a few months lurking on here and reading the comments, now i customize my answers just to get people angry hahaha ive already explained that and yet people STILL get angry over what i say!! EVery story has two sides or more, im just bringing one in and its like people dont even wanna hear it (even though they are the ones calling for democracy here haha)
Posted by Jennifer Grebe, Deira, U.A.E. on 3 September 2009 at 15:27 UAE time
Ranting, Bashing, a couple of good ideas make for amusing reading, and a quick pick me up. The suggestion of AED 34.38 per hour was really good, the best of all I will say. AED 34.38 per hour for a worker working a minimum 8 hour day into a minimum 25 day month = to AED 6,876. Now that’s a handsome salary for Labourer. Good, Very Good, but then how are we going to base the rest of the U.AE.'s salaries when some who work in offices don’t get paid even half of that? And how is the construction industry going to price its projects based upon this salary. Imagine employing 100 workers at minimum; that’s AED 687,600 for just one month, now multiply that by the 300 in question!!!!!!!
Its all well and good to sympathize with the downtrodden as the labourers have been made out to seem. I work for a construction company as well, and we; along with the stipulated wages, provide rice, gas, and incentives such as attendance allowance, special living allowance, as well as a production incentive, which is calculated into overtime hours and paid to the workers. Having done all this, our workers still do not appreciate what's done for them.
The human can never be satisfied, just like the many that have lived and earned well off this land and condemn it the first chance they get. Leave well enough alone, I say. Why go bashing and blaming, and accumulating unwanted sin? At the end of the day this concerns Al Habtoor, its workforce, and the concerned authorities, its not for us to judge. Don’t we have enough going on in our own lives that we can put effort into bettering rather than throwing pebbles into the ocean?
OH AND TO MOUNIR; You do a good job of stirring the pot….. keep it up…. it at least gives the mundane something to do beside being mundane!!!!!!!!!!!! I' am sure you just sit back and enjoy!!!!!! Maybe its time Dubai had a DWF so people can wrestle each other, imagine…. the business in that…. if one does not like how two people wrestled…. then one or many more can get in, and get involved, now what a fight that would be !!!!!! C'mon ya'll I know I' am gonna be a contender as well after this, so who's gonna be the first to swing!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Nick on 3 September 2009 at 13:16 UAE time
Pascal, you don't have a clue of what you're saying. I own a company in Dubai and Europeans account just for a mere 3% while the GM is an Asian national. Executives of most developers in Dubai are arabs, the exec of Arabtec is (the largest contractor in UAE and maybe of the entire GCC) is an Arab national. Progress has advanced more in the West in the past, while now it's moving towards different area as it has been secular history. I am Italian and during the fifties we used to migrate to USA as labourers or to Switzerland. Please allow some history before writing out of frustration because you couldn't get a better pay as it is not fair towards people of your same nationality who made it wealthy and many of westerners who lost their jobs and dind't make it at all in life.
Posted by Pascal, Dubai, UAE on 3 September 2009 at 12:03 UAE time
Why British, South African, Newzelanders and Australian are making more money than any Arab or Asian? Do you have better brains? Or just your skin? I have seen highly educated Arabs treated badly for not being able to hold executive positions. MOST of the executive positions are held by westerners who only prefer to hire from their countries and so that they can use it to create Blockage for others to get promoted. Enough is enough!
90% of the recruiters are from the above nations – That would tell you something, right!
Posted by Nick on 3 September 2009 at 10:53 UAE time
I believe government should chase those companies who don't pay salaries on time, insure their personnel and ensure living standards hygiene. But this is not the case. These people have signed a contract aware of what they would earn if employed. In a free labor market people are free to resign and opt for a better salary. I can't understand why an employee can decide to resign for a better salary while an employer should be forced to increase the pay of its personnel if not for a meritocratic reason. These people in my opinion have the right to request for a better pay as much as they have the duty and obligation to earn such a raise through merits. People are not the same, some by grace have better skills in their hands and some others don't. Why compensation should differenciate only at managerial levels? Habtoor proposal is more than fair and should be taken as an example to be followed by many.
Posted by Joe, Mumbai, India on 3 September 2009 at 09:22 UAE time
Mounir of "ha ha productivity" mail below, you dont know anything and are really dumb. 5 workers sweep a small area, complete it in the least time possible and then move onto sweeping another small area. Thus as a team they are able to achieve greater results in terms of cleanliness and area cleaned. Go to school Mounir and you will learn of these techniques. Also you require 4 people to redirect traffic whenever a truck is pulling into the construction site to ensure safety, both of the car drivers and the truck driver, especially due to the rash driving by the drivers. Mounir, you are really dumb if you dont know this.