Workers not paid by Apple HQ roof firm
Dubai company has won global acclaim but staff are not so happy
Dubai’s Premier Composite Technologies is winning global acclaim as a supplier of materials for some of the most eye-catching buildings, and yet its hundreds of staff have not been paid for months.
The employees are feeling the strain just months after a financial crisis at the company seemed to have been resolved.
The company, based in Dubai Investments Park, won praise for its role in the construction of Apple’s new headquarters in California, supplying material for its 80-tonne space-age roof. It also supplied material for the solar-powered wing-doors on Apple’s Dubai Mall store.
SD, a logistics supervisor organising transport at the company, has been forced to send his family home as he can no longer afford to support them in Abu Dhabi because of unpaid wages.
“I can’t leave the country unless I have a certain amount of cash, and I know a lot of other employees are in the same situation and suffering a lot,” SD said.
“I have a credit card to repay and have asked for a letter from the finance department to show there are problems, otherwise I’ll be in trouble with police.
“I’m getting calls from banks asking for money. I have asked the HR department to help but they don’t know when the cash flow issues will be resolved.”
He said he had been paid up to April but was still owed more than two months’ salary, about Dh35,000.
“We’ve not had an email to explain what the delay is or when we will be paid,” said SD, who lives in company accommodation. “There are more than 1,400 people in the same position as me.”
The company has completed contracts on high-profile projects in recent months, in contrast to much of the building sector in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which shrank by about US$17 billion (Dh62.44bn) last year, according to project management firm Faithful+Gould.
It worked on 250 giant umbrellas in Medina to shade pilgrims attending Hajj in summer and panels for the spectacular concourse at Saudi Arabia’s highspeed rail link, also in Medina.
Other projects have been completed on a new assembly hall in Angola and a dome housing a telescope in Turkmenistan.
With those projects finished, the hundreds of employees are puzzled as to why their salaries have not been paid.
A logistics supervisor there said he was owed more than Dh20,000 and had to ask his family for a loan to pay his rent.
“The company has developed a good name for itself and comes across publicly as a stable firm, but internally it is messed up,” he said. “No one knows where the money is going to. There are not even materials to build boats but we are still taking on big projects.
“Because it has been going on for nearly two years now, morale is pretty low. We are still getting pushed to finish stuff even though we are not getting paid.”
Another worker, who is owed more than Dh40,000, said staff had been looking for other jobs but feared losing the chance to recover their outstanding salaries if they left.
“I don’t know how long we can manage. Many of us are looking for new jobs but it is not easy,” he said. “We’ve been working for free. I received mail from the bank demanding payment, otherwise they will open a case. There is a risk of a travel ban then we can’t do anything. Everyone is owed money.”
The company was hit by another cash crisis in January, with hundreds of workers unpaid.
Managing director Hannes Waimer emailed staff to reassure workers earning less than Dh5,000 a month that they would be offered Dh200 for food, and he blamed the cash crisis on unpaid Saudi contracts.
Mr Waimer reassured staff that new contracts were coming that would resolve the company’s financial woes. But five months on the financial problems have resurfaced.
In January, he said: “In the last year Saudi Arabia has had problems paying its dues to contractors. I have some issues but the company is still profitable and has a good workload.
“We are taking this extremely seriously as employees are assets. We are doing all we can to support the staff by doing regular payments from a hardship fund to labourers.”
The company did not respond to requests for comment.
A year ago, a decree from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation was brought in to support workers struggling to obtain their wages.
All businesses employing more than 100 staff were subject to the rule, whereby companies delaying staff payments are restricted from additional work permits starting from the 16th day of the delay.