QR600 pay sought for Lankan janitors - Embassy presses for minimum wages

DOHA • The Sri Lankan Embassy here is pressing Colombo to fix a minimum monthly salary of QR600 for unskilled Sri Lankan workers being hired by cleaning companies in Qatar as janitors.

A senior mission official told The Peninsula yesterday that the cleaning companies here are notorious for paying low salaries to their employees.

A Sri Lankan janitor is on an average paid QR400 a month which is a pittance considering the escalating prices, especially of foodstuff and clothing, said Cryshantha Herath, Labour Attaché at the Sri Lankan Embassy.

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Dubai : Firms with illegal staff penalised

A number of companies found employing illegal workers here were penalised after sudden inspections by the Ministry of Labour.

Abdullah Bin Suloum, Head of the Investigation Unit at the Ministry of Labour, said they found a number of workers, who were brought into the country illegally, absconders as well as those working on visit visas last week.

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Dubai : Recruitment agencies taking fees from job-seekers 'to be shut down'

Recruitment agencies taking fees from job-seekers are violating the labour law and will have their offices shut, a senior ministry official said.

Humaid Bin Deemas, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour, said to take fees from a jobseeker is illegal and against the labour law and agencies which get into such practices will be shut down.

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Put an end to sending women abroad as house maids – President

President Mahinda Rajapakse says that time has come to stop sending Sri Lankan women to Middle East countries to be employed as house maids there.

Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse expressed these views addressing a ceremony held in connection with the awarding of appointment letters to a group of nurses.

The President added that requests have come from foreign countries for the employment of nurses. The president said that agreements have been signed to this effect and Sri Lankans would be sent for nursing and other professions. He pointed out that even though house maids brought huge amounts of foreign exchange to the country, the social problems experienced are more disastrous.

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Survey on living conditions soon

DUBAI — The Statistics Centre of Dubai is planning to soon conduct a comprehensive survey on the living conditions of people belonging to various stratas. Though still in its planning stage, the survey could bring to the fore some interesting figures and facts, said Zain Al Abideen Wafai, demographic and social statistics expert.

“For the Labour Force Characteristics survey in Dubai, we did not touch upon the living standards of people. It was just about the employment rate, the number of people employed and unemployed etc. However, this time our survey will focus on the living conditions only,” Wafai informed.

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