Welcome to Hell

1300 unpaid Bangladeshi cleaners continue their stand for justice, as reported in today's Arab Times...

End strike or face ‘serious’ consequences, workers told; ‘Welcome to Hell’

KUWAIT CITY: The striking Bangladeshi cleaning workers have been asked by their company management to call off their strike forthwith failing which they would face serious consequences, workers informed the Arab Times on Tuesday. Some 1,300 workers employed with a leading cleaning company went on strike last
month to protest non-payment, their expired residencies, among other grievances.
The distressed workers observed that two officials of the company paid a visit to their living quarters in Hassawi a few days ago and asked them resume their duties immediately, thereby promising to pay them KD 10 each as temporary compensation. “We demanded to know from the officials whether the company would settle all our dues if we call off the strike, and they said the company would look into the matter and take a decision soon. The workers had earlier vowed that they would not go back to work unless all their demands were met. The workers said that the company officials also warned them that they would be thrown out of their accommodation if they do not end the strike in the next few days. Some 300 female Bangladeshi cleaners employed with a local company on Sunday complained of non-payment and ill-treatment by their company.
The workers, who have not received their salaries for over eight months are drawing a monthly salary of KD 25 each and came to Kuwait some three years ago. Another problem plaguing the workers is that their residencies have not been renewed by the company. “The company is trying to pull out all stops to compel us to go back to work. But we have informed the company about our demands and we reiterate that unless those demands are met in their entirety there is no chance of ending our strike,” the workers added. According to the workers, the embassy has been lackadaisical about their problem and was not doing enough to resolve the protracted and bitter dispute that has been plaguing the workers for the past few months. The embassy was quick to reiterate that it was doing everything in its capacity to resolve the problem of the workers in a swift manner. The First Secretary at the Bangladesh Embassy, Shariar Siddiky, told the Arab Times that the Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour has urged the Labour Court to expedite efforts to settle the case of the workers as soon as possible.

Help
The workers have called upon philanthropists and others to come forward and help them by donating food and other much needed items. “We do not seek monetary assistance but food items just to keep us going.
Some of us were eating only one meal a day and sometimes we go to sleep on empty stomachs.”Moved by the plight of the workers, a charitable organization had sent them rice, sugar, chicken etc but the supplies ran out last week. “Welcome to Hell,” That’s how some workers greeted this reporter when he visited their living quarters on Tuesday. Upon visiting some of the accommodation units, it was found that they were not equipped with air conditioners and most bathrooms were poorly maintained. One room was shared by 10 workers even as most rooms were infested with cockroaches. The staircases were filled with all sorts of filth while parts of the false ceiling of most rooms had fallen off. Some workers who were detained last month by police for allegedly inciting other workers to go on strike continue to languish in jails and the workers have expressed concern over their continued detention.

This ongoing saga is continuing with no end in sight. Surely, naming and shaming the businessman concerned, or at least threatening to name and shame, would have some impact here on seeing justice done. Or is he above the law, like Mr. Fawaz Khalid Al Marzouq, as the teacher, Katherine Phillips has discovered. Even if Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, First Deputy Premier, Minister of Interior and Minister of Defence says nobody is above the law, when he talks of allowing police to arrest a fellow royal... Or maybe the 7,981 residence law violators who corrected their status and the 28,428 people who left the country during the recent two month amnesty period were not enough to rid Kuwait of Bangladeshis.