Abu Dhabi says complaints from labourers down 42% in 2018

Authorities in Abu Dhabi say work complaints from labourers have dropped 42 per cent so far this year following an awareness campaign.

The news comes after police in Abu Dhabi dispersed a strike by labourers last month over unpaid wages.

Read: Workers protest in Abu Dhabi over unpaid salaries

The campaign, designed to inform workers of their rights and duties guaranteed under UAE law, has seen participation from 135,000 workers across 19 labour centres in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Dhafrah, Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) said on Tuesday,

Organisation undersecretary Yousef Saeed Al Abri said lectures were provided in five languages including Arabic, English, Urdu, Pashto and Bengali “to shed the light on the most important legal articles guaranteeing labourers rights in the UAE”.

During the 24 lectures, “to introduce workers’ to their rights, duties and obligations, the situations that deserve to be brought to the labour courts and ways of amicable settlement of complaints”, about 1,000 questions and requests for legal advice were received.

Al Abri said the awareness campaigns helped reduce the number of labour cases by 42 per cent so far this year from 16,897 during the same period in 2017 to 9,979.