Labor Issues
The UAE has a large population of expatriate construction workers, mainly from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. With trade unions outlawed, the poor conditions and low wages have brought the UAE some unwelcome headlines. In Dubai, the Government has done much to guarantee limited rights to such workers, particularly with regard to ensuring that they are paid on time. However, from time to time labor disputes, strikes and protests do still occur. With laborers often on a daily wage of around US$8, and the land that Emaar builds its developments on being essentially free, the price of Dubai property seems to be somewhat disconnected from the fundamentals. In July 2010 American businessman Lionel Lombard filed a $61 million dollar lawsuit against Emaar and its Chairman Mohamed Alabbar in a California federal court alleging he had been falsely imprisoned for 2 years and tortured in UAE prisons because he had spoken up on behalf of Emaar foreign workers and alleged Apartheid was being practiced by Emaar.
Read more about this topic: Emaar Properties
Famous quotes containing the words labor and/or issues:
“... continual hard labor deadens the energies of the soul, and benumbs the faculties of the mind; the ideas become confined, the mind barren, and, like the scorching sands of Arabia, produces nothing; or, like the uncultivated soil, brings forth thorns and thistles. Again, continual hard labor irritates our tempers and sours our dispositions; the whole system become worn out with toil and fatigue; nature herself becomes almost exhausted, and we care but little whether we live or die.”
—Maria Stewart (1803–1879)
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)