Cheap Asian Labour
ive been prompted to start this thread after nomcat posed the question in a different forum here in TFP.
cheap unskilled labour from usually india, pakistan, afghanistan, china and the phillipines make up the majority of the population here in Dubai. around 80% of the population come from these countries, although not all are cheap labour. some are skilled and semi skilled, others are professionals, engineers, doctors etc.
labourers however get next to nothing compared to the western expats who earn big tax free bucks (depending which country you hail from). the lines are drawn based on what passport you hold. regardless of the experience you have or the position you hold. had i held a lebanese passport instead of an australian one, id be getting a third of what i currenly get.
is it fair? is it morally right? it really depends on which side of the fence yo stand on.
heres some pro's of the situation from a company's POV
the labourers get fed or get a food and gas allowance
the labourers get company accomodation
they get tickets back home every 24 months
they get uniforms and laundry service
they work for anywherebetween 1-2 USD an hour (about 100USD /week)
cheap labour which is good for construction costs
they earn more than they do back home and are able to support up to 10 family members back home on a basic wage
here are the cons
- living quarters are usually crowded and up to 10 people live in a room
- they dont earn enough money to enjoy activities outside of work except backyard cricket
- they live away from home with no access to women and give women are hard time in the street
- cheap labour means inefficient workers. what one good tradesman could do in a day you'd need 2-4 labourers, this elimating the cost savings of the cheap labour.
from a monetary viewpoint, you could justify the cheap labour. from a human rights viewpoint, the UAE's been under intense worldwide scrutiny.
what do you think? if you ran a company, would you utilise cheap labour?
if you ran an IT business would you get a call centre in india to do your work for the sake of saving $?
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