3 companies fined for shabby staff housing

abu dhabi — Launching its crackdown on makeshift workers’ accommodations, the Abu Dhabi City Municipality fined three companies for forcing workers to stay in ill-equipped, unsafe and shabby houses. They also issued warnings to a number of others.

The Shahama Municipality Center carried out the inspection campaign on temporary workers’ accommodation complexes within its purview. The visits included 15 companies in Rawdat Al Reef, Al Jarf (forest belt), Sih Sdeira, Samaha, and Old Shahama. The campaign aims to ensure safety and security standards in accommodations, and verify the priority set by companies to provide services and decent living conditions to workers. The campaign aimed at ensuring that companies provide decent accommodations to workers and safeguard their rights as stipulated by the UAE’s laws.

The municipality appealed to the companies providing workers’ lodgings to adhere to prescribed rules amid the growing urbanisation.

Running since the beginning of this year, during the campaign the municipality spotted three offences and issued seven warnings to companies for flouting workers’ accommodation standards.

Fines slapped on violators included the expiry of workers’ accommodation permits for poor safety and security precautions. An unlicensed barber shop was also spotted in one of the workers’ complexes.