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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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United Arab Emirates
Index
There was no significant foreign labor force before the
sharp
rise in oil revenues in the 1970s. Most work was done by
local
Arabs, some by slaves brought from Africa; Indians and
Iranians
were mainly merchants. The slave trade, most of which
ended by
about 1945, was a major point of contention in relations
between
Britain and the rulers of the Trucial Coast. For example,
if the
British resident was opposed by a shaykh on a specific
matter,
the resident in some cases might accuse the shaykh of
violating
treaty bans on the slave trade and threaten to destroy his
pearling fleet or invalidate the travel documents of the
shaykh
and his subjects.
The massive influx of foreign workers and professionals
in
the 1970s and 1980s, mainly from other Arab countries and
from
India, Pakistan, and Iran, fundamentally changed the face
of UAE
society. (The UAE's population increased 86 percent
between 1975
and 1980.) Working conditions of foreign workers in the
UAE vary.
Professionals, managers, and clerical workers are
attracted by
contracts offering good salaries, comprehensive benefits,
and
high living standards. Unskilled and semiskilled workers
are in a
more precarious situation. In their home countries, they
might be
cheated or misled by unscrupulous labor contractors who
supply
workers to the gulf countries. Although many obtain safe
work at
reasonable wages (much of which they remit to their
families
abroad), others work long hours in conditions not
regulated for
safety and health as stringently as they should be. In the
1980s,
however, the government attempted to improve the labor
law, which
covered conditions of employment, compensation, inspection
of the
workplace, and enforcement procedures. Job security can be
capricious, often depending on the whims of the oil market
and
the national mood. In the early 1980s, for example, during
a
period of economic decline, authorities increased their
efforts
to discover foreign workers without proper credentials and
deported them as illegal aliens. By 1986, however, Dubayy
tried
to reverse the outward flow of labor by encouraging
immigrant
workers to bring their families with them.
In addition, labor is not permitted to organize,
strike, or
engage in collective bargaining. Individuals or groups of
workers
may bring grievances to the Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs,
which has been known to settle matters with fairness.
Although
the law prohibits the employment of youths under eighteen
and
restricts hours of work to eight hours per day six days
per week,
the law is widely violated. There is no minimum wage.
In 1986, according to one set of government figures,
the size
of the labor force was 890,941. About 25 percent worked in
construction, 14 percent in trade, 7 percent in
transportation
and communications, and 6 percent in manufacturing.
According to
the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, in 1992 UAE
citizens
accounted for 7 percent of the total work force and about
1
percent of the private-sector work force.
Data as of January 1993
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