Verdict favours Filipino workers

November 26, 2010 - THE Dubai Labour Court (DLC) has ruled in favour of four cleaners who are among 83 women workers from the Philippines, who had filed a case against their Emirati employer for abandonment since 2009.

On Thursday, Labour Attache for Dubai and the Northern Emirates Amilbahar Amilasan told The Gulf Today that the DLC had decided that Maria Elena Amba, Merly Perez, Jonalyn Dordas and Mary Grace Teneros, be paid their two months salary of Dhs1,400 each by Lavito Cleaning Services firm owner KHAM.

Amilasan said the four are expected to receive their salary 15 days after the DLC announced the verdict on Nov. 24.

Amilasan said the DLC gave weight on KHAM’s non-appearance throughout the trial, thereby waiving his right to contest the complaint for the non-payment of salaries.

He said, Dubai Ministry of Labour (MoL) would release the payment for the salaries, secured from the bond KHAM had deposited with the government office, when he hired over 90 Filipino women cleaners.

Of the over 90, at least seven had gone home for health reasons and after experiencing delayed salaries, inhumane living conditions.

“The court has also allowed the four to seek re-employment in the UAE,” Amilasan said.

Assistant Labour Attache Venus Abad said the employment papers of the four women are already being processed by the Micro for Services cleaning firm.

Micro for Services is one of two companies-the other one is Prime Technical Services-which have been accredited by the Philippine Overseas Labour Office in Dubai (Polo-Dubai)-to employ at least 25 of the 83 women.

These firms passed all of the standards set by the Philippine government in terms of the employees’ benefits and privileges, the physical existence of their offices as well as the accommodations, Abad said.

The four women said they will be cleaners at a government school in Fujeirah.

They were the first to lodge the complaint against KHAM before the MoL on July 27, 2010.

They filed a case against KHAM before the Naif Police Station for the retrieval of their passports on Aug.10.

DLC hearings began on Sept.3.

Thereafter, the DLC has been attending to three other related cases filed against KHAM by the other 79.

The 79 must be paid Dhs7,000 each, once they win their respective cases, based on the MoL computations and analysis of their gratuities, unpaid salaries and other unmet benefits and privileges, Amilasan said.

It was learnt that 55 of the 79 are currently sheltered at the Polo-Dubai Filipino Workers Resource Centre.

Of these, 11 had expressed their desire to return home and awaiting their airline tickets to be shouldered in the meantime by the Philippines’ Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

As stipulated in the laws governing the overseas employment of Filipinos, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) shall press for the manpower agencies of these women to pay for their repatriation tickets.

These are the Al Dana in Dubai and the Al Farabi in Metro Manila.

Al Dana remains to be blacklisted by Polo-Dubai from May 2, 2009 when then Labour Attache Virginia Calves received the first major complaint of contract substitution (salary down to Dhs800 from Dhs1,800) contrary to contracts signed in Metro Manila.

Al Farabi was shut down by the POEA. - Mariecar Jara-Puyod, http://gulftoday.ae