More than 1000 cases of labour abuses in the UAE were referred to prosecutors last year, the country’s Ministry of Labour has revealed.
The 1015 cases involve allegations of inadequate accommodation for foreign workers and forcing labourers to work during peak summer hours, when temperatures can soar to 50 degrees Celsius. Working outdoors between 12.30-3pm during summer months has been banned since 2005.
The Ministry of Labour conducted 138,801 inspections during 2013, including 11,807 to assess accommodation standards and 80, 571 to ensure workers were not outdoors during the banned period, according a report published on state news agency WAM.
Convicted employers had received “substantial penalties”, the ministry said.
The report was released a week after The New York Times published an article alleging severe labour abuses during the construction of the New York University Abu Dhabi campus, including that workers were not being paid fairly and had been treated inhumanely.
The newspaper’s UAE publisher, Khaleej Times, which also publishes its own daily, refused to print the entire edition on May 20.
In an apology to subscribers, The New York Times Company said Khaleej Times had deemed the story “too sensitive for local printing”.
In its report on Wednesday, the ministry said it had made “enormous progress” in labour rights and protections.
“Over recent years, the UAE government has substantively reformed its laws to address concerns that expatriate workers may be exposed to poor practices and/or mistreatment, including the withholding of travel documents, human trafficking, or non payment of wages,” the report says.
“Many of the challenges relating to the implementation of labour rights in the UAE are concentrated around blue-collar workers in the construction field. The UAE considers it a priority to work on an ongoing basis to improve their conditions.
“Recent measures have ranged from outlawing employer confiscation of workers’ passports to allowing workers to transfer sponsorship between employers and introducing wage protection measures.”
The UAE also has ratified nine major international conventions conventions related to the rights of workers, the ministry said.
It also is currently developing a new law for protecting the rights of domestic workers.
“The UAE has a strong record in implementing robust measures to monitor and enforce the implementation of labour protections and is committed to continuously enhancing the enforcement of labour protections,” the ministry said.
“However, given the speed with which the workforce is growing and changing, the UAE recognises that workers’ rights will require ongoing monitoring and evaluation and further action to address any shortfalls.”
Foreign workers make up as much as 90 percent of the UAE’s total population and are relied on to fil jobs in many industries, particularly services and construction.
In 2012, expats remitted more than $20bn back to their home countries, making the UAE the sixth largest source of remittances in the world, according to the World Bank.
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