New housing decree needs monitoring

Free housing for low-paid workers is welcome – but companies must follow the regulations

A man bikes past affordable apartments near the Abu Dhabi Corniche (DELORES JOHNSON / The National )

A short statement from the Ministry of Human Resources on Monday heralds a big change in how low-income workers are treated, housed and paid. The statement explains a new decree: labourers paid less than Dh2,000 a month must be given free accommodation by their employers, if the company has more than 50 workers. The accommodation will be subject to regular inspections.

This is a welcome change and one that will have a measurable impact on the quality of life and take-home pay of thousands of workers. It highlights the continued evolution of the labour market, especially as it affects the low-paid.

With the decree due to come into effect at the end of this year, the task now must be to create a monitoring framework to ensure that both the spirit and the letter of the law are obeyed.

Monitoring the situation will require considering how companies may try to avoid adhering to the law. For example, companies that offer positions at just over the Dh2,000 limit, or in which lots of workers are suddenly given pay rises that take them over that threshold, should be watched carefully. The same applies to companies that unexpectedly shrink, or perhaps split into two or more entities of fewer than 50 workers each.

The inspections will also need to be rigorous and ensure that the accommodation is up to a certain standard. Housing for labourers is generally a good thing, saving them the costs of the general housing market, but it must be of an acceptable standard. The new decree makes it clear that companies with fewer than 50 employees, but in which the workers earn more than Dh2,000, can optionally provide accommodation and if they do these facilities will also be subject to regular inspections. It is to be hoped that companies will take up that option.

We also hope that this housing is a reasonable distance from the place of work – and that, crucially, the time it takes for labourers to be brought in on buses is counted as part of their working day. Stories of workers travelling more than an hour each way, without pay, have been reported and this is a gross infringement of these workers’ rights to time off.

Piece by piece, then, new laws are being put in place to protect vulnerable workers and ensure that their essential, though difficult, work is made as comfortable as possible.