The Hindu : National : Embassy working to protect Indian workers in UAE: Ambassador

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Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Embassy working to protect Indian workers in UAE: Ambassador

T. Ramakrishnan

‘Transparency, fairness in contracting will be the governing principles’

There should be one document between employee and employer
Authorities are particular that special protection is given to women

CHENNAI: The Indian embassy in the United Arab Emirates is working on an arrangement through which the fundamentals of contracting prospective workers are protected, according to Ambassador to the UAE Talmiz Ahmad.

Terming the contracting process weakest and least satisfactory of the present arrangement between employers and Indian workers, Mr. Ahmad, in an interaction with a group of journalists at The Hindu on Monday, said transparency and fairness in contracting would be the governing principles.

“There should be one document between employee and employer with one copy each to the Indian embassy and the UAE government. This document alone should be valid and enforceable,” he said.

The details were yet to be worked out fully, though the proposed system was approved in principle. Cooperation between the Government of India and the UAE’s Labour Ministry was essential to implement the system, the envoy said, responding to questions on recent labour-related problems in the Emirates.

Now, labourers entered into contracts with recruiting agents in India. Such contracts had no legal validity in the UAE or any other Gulf country. On reaching the Emirates, a new contract was signed between an employer and a worker, at which point the latter did not have any bargaining power, he said.

As for the existing contracts, the UAE government had set up a commission of inquiry to look into all contracts and see whether they could be reviewed.

On issues concerning women workers, Mr. Ahmad said the authorities were particular that special protection was given to them. An analysis showed that the problem lay primarily at the Indian end. Many of them moved out on visit visas. They were “ill trained” and had “poor communication skills.” They spoke only one language. The Indian embassy authorities had put the minimum age at 30 with certain minimum conditions. An arrangement would be put in place so that women workers were in touch with the Indian authorities regularly.

On adverse impact on remittances made by Indian expatriates, he said the currencies of the Gulf countries, except Kuwait, were pegged to the U.S. dollar. In view of the fall in the dollar value, there was a visible decrease in the remittances. At present, the fixed salary contracts were in force. The Indian authorities had suggested to the UAE that there must be a provision for increment as also some mechanism to protect real incomes in such situations.

Chinese workers

Asked about the Gulf Cooperation Council countries’ reported plan to recruit Chinese workers, he said that in 1990s, such a move was made but it did not succeed for a variety of reasons. The Indian community was 1.4 million strong and Indians did not reach this number overnight.

“Over the 25 years, we have been found to be a peaceful community. We are aloof from local politics — jihad and extremism. This is our strength,” he said.

Ambitious projects

Pointing out that there was a certain impulse on the part of the UAE government to “look good and to be fair to workers,” he said the UAE government had committed itself to very ambitious projects, particularly in Dubai, having strict time limits. It needed workers. “They cannot afford workers going back. They want to be the global services centre. They want people to come [there] and invest money, use facilities, tourist and shopping services. So, this is a golden opportunity for us to intervene and to get whatever we can.” Stressing the importance of Track II approach in improving the ties between the two nations, he wanted the academia and the media to pay greater attention to the UAE.

Later, Mr. Ahmad called on Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at the State Secretariat. He also met senior government officials and discussed problems faced by Tamil community in the UAE.

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