Employer forged workers’ signature and stole their salary

Ajman: More than 11 Egyptian workers have been living in difficult circumstances for the past five months as their employer has vanished without paying them their salaries.

Sleeping in an accommodation in Ajman industrial area, the stranded workers have no money for food or other daily essentials. “Our employer has not paid the rent for the accommodation since October and we fear we will be asked to vacate,” Engineer Thamer Hamdi, one of the workers, told Gulf News.

The workers were recruited five months ago by Mukhtar Ebrahim Contracting Company based in Dubai.

The workers had filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour in Dubai in November.

Hamdi said their contract, which was approved by the Ministry of Labour in Dubai, stipulated a sum of Dh3,000-Dh3,500 as their monthly salary, but their employer only paid them Dh100-200 a week, making them sign a paper saying they had received the money. A total of Dh33,000 was paid to the employer as recruitment charges, Hamdi said.

Three of the workers are still on a visit visa, according to him. “We never thought we would end up this way,” said Hamdi.

Some Good Samaritans have been giving the workers food, but they say they would rather prefer to be gainfully employed. “We don’t want to be a burden on others,” said Hamdi.

Mohammad Abu Al Hijazi, director of Al Engaz LL Company which owns the licence of the contracting company, told Gulf News he is aware of the workers’ plight and is in touch with them.

The contracting company’s license expired on November 29 and Al Hijazi refused to renew it as the employer had cheated his workers. Al Hijazi said if the employer does not return within the legal period of 30 days, he would be banned from entering the country and the workers compensated from the bank guarantee of the company’s licence.

As for the workers’ options for employment elsewhere, Al Hijazi said, “We leave the decision to them. We told them they can find another job and we can give them a ‘No Objection’ letter. We are helping them the best way we can,” Al Hijazi said.