Chinese earn double the salary of Indians in UAE

Dubai, Dec 8 (UNI) Chinese workers are being offered double the salary of what their Indian counterparts are getting, as Indians turn down the meagrely paid job offers from the UAE.

Labourers from China, Thailand and Vietnam are being offered upto 2000 Dirham compared to wages as low as 800 Dirham which the Indians get, the Gulf Today daily reported.

''The response has been poor with Indian workers opting to stay back and work in the booming construction sector in India,'' a spokesman of a major recruitment company with offices in several Indian citities, was quoted as saying.

He said the company could not recruit workers even from Kareemnagar and Nizamabad districts of Andhra Pradesh which used to send thousands of labourers to work in Dubai and other emirates on low wages earlier.

Indians are refusing to come due to low wages and sliding value of Dirham against Rupee. Interestingly, the companies willing to pay much higher wage to workers from other countries are not offering more acceptable wages to the Indians.

Many Chinese companies have taken up construction contracts in the UAE and bring workers from their country. There are about 5000 Vietnamese labourers working here, while the African countries have also expressed their readiness to send people to meet workers shortage here.

The UAE has witnessed a rash of strikes as South Asian workers protest against low wages and poor working conditions. Delinking of Dirham from Dollar peg is under consideratin so that workers can get more value for money, which is expected to have a salubrious effect on labour unrest.

UNI