Two thousand construction workers at the Burj Dubai building site held a protest Wednesday, demanding higher wages, reports the daily Gulf News.
The workers, all south Asians, smashed cars and office windows, and caused about $1 million worth of damage, a government official said.
The workers’ demands were “simple”, said Lieutenant Colonel Rashid Al-Jumeiri, from the Permanent Committee for Labor Affairs in Dubai (PCLAD), who condemned the violence. “They don’t have major grievances like unpaid salaries. We’ve met with their management who has promised to try to fulfill some of the workers’ demands.” Another PCLAD official said if the workers resort to violence again, they will be deported.
The workers also protested against harassment they suffer at the hands of on-site security officers; and because buses transport them to the building site usually an hour before they begin work. “We don’t get paid for this time,” one of the workers told Gulf News.
The men, many of them Muslims, said management deducted money from their wages if they stopped work to pray, or go to the toilet. They also complained of poor medical facilities. “For any problem they give us an aspirin,” a worker said.
The Dubai tower whose height is expected to be 2,313 feet, is due to be completed in 2008, the same year another building is due for completion – the Freedom Tower in New York. The Freedom Tower is expected to rise to 1,776 feet, and a total height of 2,000 feet, including the high spiral peak, which would have made it the tallest building in the world.