ACC responds to Downtown Dubai workers’ protest

DUBAI // Hundreds of workers took to the streets on Tuesday in protest at overtime rates. Dubai Police controlled the demonstration within one hour and confirmed there were no arrests.

About 400 workers will return to work on the Fountain Views site for a night shift on Wednesday following day-long talks with Ministry of Labour officials.

In response to the protest, the Arabic Construction Company, which employs the 3,200 workers on the Emaar site behind the Dubai Mall, issued the following statement:

“On March 10, 2015, a number of workers from our Fountain Views site in Dubai staged a public protest following their misunderstanding of discretionary incentives. Thanks to the efforts of the Dubai Police, the protest was resolved in a civilised and peaceful manner within an hour.

ACC takes both its responsibility as an employer and the rights of its employees very seriously. All of our workers are paid on time and in line with their contracts and Labour Laws. In addition, their wages are protected through a workers ‘Wage Protection System’ that sees their salaries transferred directly into their bank accounts.

The protest was related to some of our workers requesting the application of financial incentives which are measures that are occasionally offered depending on project and work requirements. These incentives are completely discretionary and are above and beyond the employees’ contracted basic salary and overtime payments.

As work conditions do not currently require extra work incentives at our Fountain Views site, some of the site’s workers have protested at the absence of such incentives, as their impact reduced their income. In fact our workers’ salaries have not been reduced, their overtime work hours payments have not been reduced, and all of our workers’ salary entitlements are always paid on time.

The situation is being managed in accordance with the UAE Labour laws and the workers employment contracts.”

newsdesk@thenational.ae