ABU DHABI // Workers say a lack of proper rest areas on building sites leads them to take risks to escape the heat in their midday breaks.
Last week an Asian worker was run over by a paving lorry as he napped on a site in Ras Al Khaimah.
He was sleeping in front of the parked vehicle when the operator started it up and ran over him. He died instantly.
Workers say that sleeping under parked lorries is common.
“We are poor workers who don’t have options if the company doesn’t provide transport to their camps or rest areas at midday,” said Mohamed Yousuf, 35, a Bangladeshi fire safety officer.
“Sometimes I find some of our colleagues and other workers taking shelter under the parked construction lorries on site.
“They make such dangerous decisions to avoid the sunshine, particularly when it’s at its peak. Nobody can stay for long during that time. It’s very hot.”
Labourers are back in the heat after a two-day Eid Al Fitr holiday, but midday breaks are scheduled to continue until September 15.
The Ministry of Labour requires a break from 12.30pm to 3pm for all labourers who work outside. Employers must provide shaded areas and workers must down tools.
Most labourers stay at their sites and seek shade under nearby trees, unfinished walls and parked vehicles.
Companies drive their workers to and from work, but few take them back to accommodations during the break.
“We find some shade to hide in beside trucks and lie down. I have seen many sleeping under trucks,” said Ramesh Das, 45, from India.
“The biggest problem is of not having a rest area there. There is no place to rest on site when you talk about having a nap.”
Mr Yousuf, who has lived in the UAE for seven years, said: “If the company provides an area to take a rest it would be good, or at least transport us back during the break.
“We get the midday break but we don’t come back to our accommodation as no transport is provided. We just find some shaded trees or places to cool off from the scorching hot summer.”
He said he had not heard about the worker in RAK but he did not feel that his company cared for his safety.
“If I died they will bring another 10 workers. Who cares for us?”
Some more fortunate workers have accommodations that are close by.
“I stay at the site or go to my accommodation, which is near the site,” said Bakhta Bahadur Kandh, 24, from Nepal.
Mr Kandh earns Dh800 a month as an unskilled labourer.
Some workers do not get a midday break because they start at 3pm and work until 1am.
“Our company has changed the work timings entirely during summer,” said Mohammed Farouq, 24, an insulator from Bangladesh. “We work from 3pm to 1am every day, including two hours overtime every day.”
anwar@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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