18/01/2021
As the economy suffers, even profitable UAE companies leave employees in the lurch | Migrant-Rights.org
Arjan Residential Development
Developer: Meraki Real Estate Development
Engineer: PNC Architect (A subsidiary of the Sobha Group)
Project Consultant: Al Wasl Al Jadeed LLC
Contractor: Sobha Engineering & Contracting LLC
MEP Contractor: Sobha Electro Mechanical Works LLC (part of Sobha Group)
Furthermore, as recently as August 2017, Sobha group management signatures can be found on several o cial SECL
documents and SECL continues to use the Sobha logo. Rajendran said the company was in the process of rebranding
when the pandemic hit the Emirates and slowed down operations. There are no trade or media announcements
regarding the split in ownership.
Rajendran, speaking to MR, denied that any workers were severely a ected and that it would not be possible to leave
workers without wages for so long without strict action from the police and authorities.
He acknowledged that sta salaries were pending as clients have stopped paying, even though they had received the
completed property and started using it. He refused to name the clients who did not pay, saying negotiations were still
ongoing to ensure amicable settlement and full payment to all employees.
“We had a plan of recovering dues, but the Covid19 crisis was extremely catastrophic for our line of business. Some
clients have stopped work altogether. Some clients would rather receive assets a er this crisis. All this has made it
more di cult. This is primarily a business issue, everything that is possible to be done, we are doing. We are con dent
to generate enough surpluses to settle this.”
When asked about the employees with families in the UAE who have not been paid for several months and are
struggling to make ends meet, he insisted that any emergency requests were being met. But no employees MR spoke to
con rmed this support —instead they furnished proof of repeated emails which have gone unanswered.
Rajendran also said there were projects still ongoing, and that about 800-900 workers are working and being paid. He
also noted that about 30-50 workers who were unable to return home due to Covid19 travel restrictions are currently
accommodated in the camps.
The chairman did not o er a timeline within which all employee dues could be cleared.
The UAE was one of the rst GCC states to announce measures to protect t
private sector against the Covid19 fallout. These measures favoured emplo
by essentially permitting unilateral changes to contracts.
The UAE Government should ensure that these reforms are not further
misused by companies with labour issues predating the pandemic.
In a previous report, MR also highlighted the many ways in which the count
most vulnerable migrant workers are a ected.
The white-collar x
https://www.migrant-rights.org/2020/06/as-the-economy-suffers-even-profitable-uae-companies-leave-employees-in-the-lurch/
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