2Pack
November 12, 2007, 1:47am
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Dubai is being built by Indians operating in near slave labour conditions. However the falling value of the $ drastically affects their rupee wages , their pay has been cut over 10% this year, in effect. So they are on strike.
zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidFFT10 … nstruction
As a strike at Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest tower, entered its ninth day yesterday, Shuaa CapitalShuaa CapitalLoading… said increasing pressure for a minimum wage could push up labour costs, tighten the margins of contractors and developers and drive up real estate prices.
The death of seven building workers on Thursday served to fuel the unrest and underline concerns about health and safety standards.
In the latest bout of unrest, which began late in October before spreading to Burj Dubai,strikers demanded a pay rise due to the weakening value of the dollar-pegged dirham against the rupee.
The value of remittances sent home by Indian labourers has fallen by 11 per cent in the year to date, the Dubai-based bank said.
Last year, violent unrest at the Burj Dubai site focused scrutiny on salaries and living standards.
The United Arab Emirates government has said it would review the wages of building workers, prompting speculation a minimum rate was on the cards. Inflation is running above 10 per cent.
They are only paid less than €100 a month as it is !
Several thousand workers at Arabtec…, part of the consortium building the tower, want a rise of Dollars 55 a month. Arabtec… pays unskilled labourers Dollars 109 a month and skilled workers Dollars 163, according to AP news agency.
Projects worth billions of dollars are already threatened amid a tightening labour market after up to 350,000 illegal workers took advantage of an amnesty and went home over the summer.
Would not surprise me if Paddy was a while waiting for his villa …or whatever he is having .