I've just been flicking my way through the 14th September edition of The Week. Having read the lead article on the plight of the eight construction workers from Orissa, India, who resigned due to the appalling treatment they were given by the company which employed them, The Al Kindy Distinct Project, I'm astounded that this sort of practice continues in Oman today.
The cogs of Omani society are oiled by TCNs doing the work that some locals deem to base and demeaning to do (not all locals, I venture to add, just some) but if you're employed to do this work then you should be paid a fair wage and given decent working/living conditions - no matter what type of work you do.
I first lived in Oman almost 20 years ago and even back then there were labour laws which set out the rights of the worker. Why doesn't the Omani government implement these laws? It beggars belief that Oman is held in such high regard by the international community for its progress over the last 40 years when it has such scant regard for many of the labourers who built the country and continue to sustain it day in day out, year on year.
Shame on the Al Kindy Distinct Project for their cruel and reprehensible behaviour towards its expatriate workers and shame on the Omani government for allowing such companies to exist and thrive in a country which deserves better.
4 comments:
isn't this a universal truth throughout the gulf?
Sad but true. The irony of all this is that in allowing the exploitation of third country migrant workers, they are creating a falsely cheap economy in some sectors that has no incentive to invest in training and employing the indigenous unemployed.
My view is that the ILO standards (to which Oman is party, and by which is is therefore legally bound) should be implemented with rigour. Then the minimum wage applied to all. Ultimately that would be bad news for half a million foreign workers (eventually) who are priced out of the market, but good news for the Omani unemployed, who then start to be a realistic investment instead of a human tax to be avoided by big business.
I may sound ignorant but what's a TCN?
The Gulf has been built on workers who earn virtually nothing and have few legal rights.
This area will never complete in the international arena as they have no idea of the real cost of anything and the day is coming when there will be no excess finance for even cheap labour and there will be no Abu Dhabi to help them out.
The plight of third country nationals (TCNs) in Oman and the gulf in general is totally unacceptable but endemic.
I too once thought that locals deemed certain work below them, but as one Omani colleague pointed out, there is no opportunity for any Omani to learn a trade as such. The oligarchs prefer to employ cheap TCNs rather than their own nationals, and so it goes on. I think this is the point TLS was making.
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