"No protests by workers in Dubai this year", 22 July 2018

No protests by workers have been reported in Dubai this year, says a senior official. Major-General Obaid Muhair Bin Surour, chairman of the Permanent Committee for Labour Affairs in Dubai (PCLA)... told Gulf News that it happened because the workers had been educated about their rights and responsibilities. He said most of the protests by the workers in the past were held over non-payment of salaries and accommodation issues... “We are working to protect workers’ rights. Our strategy is to solve all labour problems at the earliest. We have a monitoring system to know if there is a problem and we solve it,” he added. He said this year, the PCLA inspected 1,269 labour accommodations... housing 638,000 workers, to make sure they have the best living conditions... “We registered violation of rules and regulations at only 11 accommodations, where more than four workers were sleeping in a room or they were cooking in their rooms or there were some hygiene issues. We spoke with their companies to solve the problems.” Meanwhile, as many as 19,500 workers in Dubai attended awareness and training programmes in the first six months this year to raise their knowledge of their rights and responsibilities... The PCLA official said they have not recorded any violation so far of the midday break for workers during summer months...