Issues over UAE worker rights thrashed out at Labour Summit

The event organised by ITP's Construction Week saw an impressive line-up of guest speakers including the Consul General of India, Venu Rajamony, who said "We are looking forward to the Indian workers moving up the value chain to become skilled workers."

He added that he would like to see the introduction of a minimum wage in the UAE in order to overcome the issue of non-payment of wages.

But Alex Zalami, special advisor on international affairs to the UAE minister of labour, HE Saqr Ghobash said that the introduction of a minimum wage was not a priority.

"There will not be a minimum wage in the larger sense," he said. "It's a matter of creating an environment that is conducive to higher wages. Let's look at the situation we have today and see if there is something that can be done by the Ministry."

ILO representative Walid Hamdan said that the UAE government and the ILO were now working together to come up with a suitable labour policy for the country.

Joe Stork, deputy director, HRW - MENA division said that even though the region was seeing a positive change in the treatment of labour, enough was not being done.

Major focus was placed on reaching an amicable solution pertaining to labour laws in the region. "Having the construction industry and representatives from the labour sending countries talk about important issues like minimum wage and unionisation on Arab ground with the HRW, ILO and the UAE ministry of labour is a ground breaking move", said Construction Week events & conference director Kimon Alexandrou.