Employees claim abuse when they try to change their jobs

DUBAI // Expatriates are claiming that they are often forced by companies to give up their service benefits to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) when changing jobs.

In a series of interviews yesterday, several workers as well as salaried staff in senior positions expressed their frustration over the practice.

“There are too many complications to change jobs here,” said SN, a purchase executive at a construction firm in Dubai who asked that his full names not be used.

The Indian national gave up a good offer at another company because he was afraid of losing benefits for years of service.

“It is so difficult to get a good job break in the present situation,” he said. “I wanted to take the new job, but when I found out about all the formalities and troubles to get my benefits, I decided to stay back.

“I have a wife, children and several credit cards to pay up. I can’t risk this.”

He said his company demands at least two months salary from employees in return for a no objection certificate.

“This is common practice, especially in construction companies,” SN said. “Not just staff. Even poor workers have to pay up two months salary to get their passports and an NOC.”

The staff would then have to sign on a letter stating that all their pending salary has been cleared, after which they cannot demand anything.

The NOC from the employer is required to avoid a work ban when shifting jobs.

The Ministry of Labour said yesterday that any agreement in which a worker gives up service benefits or salary is not valid.

The ministry maintained that these were the rights of the employee and should be given by companies.

But labourers in the construction industry said they knew of several of their colleagues returning home empty handed.

“Since the recession began, many people went home without getting any money,” said a worker based in Sharjah. “We even have to pay for our own tickets.”

Workers wanting to return to their home countries have been asked to either pay for their own ticket or wait until the company can afford to pay for a ticket, they said.

“We have to wait for months just so that they can book a ticket. Finally, we book it ourselves and fly out,” he said.

Several workers said they were unaware of their rights.

“My passport is with the company,” said Ujwal Singh, another construction worker, when asked if he would consider changing his job.

“I have no option but to work for them. When I get tired I will go back to India.”

Despite the ministry’s urging that workers file complaints against employers who use these tactics, many are reluctant to enter a process that can leave them in an even worse position.

“Many people try to complain with the ministry but then the company just delays the whole procedure,” said an Egyptian project manager who is in the process of shifting jobs.

“My colleague demanded all pending dues, which is why the company did not give him the NOC for more than four months.”

The manager is now worried that the Dubai-based contracting company would do the same to him.


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Indian workers in Dubai face abuse when asking for NOCs

Dubai: Many workers as well as salaried staff in senior positions in Dubai are claiming abuse when they try to change their jobs, as they are often forced by companies to give up their service benefits to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) when doing so. The revelations came in a series of interviews to The National.

"There are too many complications to change jobs here," said SN, a Purchase Executive at a construction firm in Dubai who wished to remain anonymous. He gave up a good offer at another firm because he was afraid of losing benefits for years of service. "It is so difficult to get a good job break in the present situation. I wanted to take the new job, but when I found out about all the formalities and troubles to get my benefits, I decided to stay back. I have a wife, children and several credit cards to pay up. I can't risk this."

He also said that his company demands at least two months salary from employees in return for a no objection certificate, which he claims is common practice, especially in construction firms.

According to The National, the staff has to sign on a letter stating that all their pending salary has been cleared, after which they cannot demand anything. The NOC from the employer is required to avoid a work ban when shifting jobs. The Ministry of Labor has said that any agreement in which a worker gives up service benefits or salary is not valid.

The Ministry also maintained that these are employee rights and should be given by companies. But, laborers in the construction industry claim that they know several of their colleagues who have had to return home empty handed.

"Since the recession began, many people went home without getting any money," said a worker based in Sharjah. "We even have to pay for our own tickets." Additionally, workers wanting to return to their home countries have been asked to either pay for their own ticket or wait until the firm can afford to pay for a ticket.

Although the Ministry has urged workers to file complaints against employers who use these tactics, many are hesitant to enter a process that can leave them in an even worse position.


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Job losses in Gulf add up to one in 10

One in 10 workers in the Gulf have lost their jobs in the past year, with the UAE hit hardest in the region, a new survey says.

Sixteen per cent of workers in the Emirates were made redundant in the period, data released by gulftalent.com, an online recruitment firm, showed. The property sector was particularly affected.

“There is a bigger supply of candidates, both in the region and globally, and less demand for staff following the slowdown in the economy,” a company spokesman said. “Competition for talent has subsided, there are fewer vacancies and employers are no longer under pressure to pay more to attract and retain staff.”

The impact was most felt in Dubai because of its higher exposure to credit financing and global markets, the report said. The results are in stark contrast to the boom of the past few years, when companies in the Gulf had difficulty recruiting enough talent.

The UAE had the most layoffs over the 12-month period to August, while Oman showed the fewest with just 6 per cent of professionals being made redundant, the survey of 24,000 professionals across the GCC showed.

“The area you probably feel it most in is the real estate sector,” said Robert Ziegler, the vice president of the management consultancy AT Kearney. “Project managers would be job-hopping, happily, in past years with 100 per cent salary increases every time they hop. Those times are over.”

Property professionals were the most impacted, with 15 per cent losing their jobs. Audit professionals, however, benefited from the economic downturn, receiving the biggest average pay rise at 7.5 per cent as demand for their skills peaked.

Senior executives and western expatriates were also hard hit, with 13 per cent of both losing their jobs.

Of those still employed in the GCC, 60 per cent did not get a pay raise, a sharp contrast from the same time last year when just one-third did not receive a salary boost. Pay rises in the UAE shrank the most, falling to just 5.5 per cent compared with 13.6 per cent during the same period last year.

Professionals in Saudi Arabia were the least affected, receiving a 6.5 per cent average pay raise compared with 9.8 per cent last year. Employees across the GCC received average salary increases of 6.2 per cent compared with 11.4 per cent last year.

Still, it was the first time in the four years the survey has been conducted in which salary growth in most GCC countries outpaced inflation.

Another side effect of the recent rise in redundancies is the migration of professionals to more bustling hubs in the GCC, such as from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and Doha, the study showed.

“The cities that are still flush with capital and continue to grow and need workers, such as Doha and Abu Dhabi, are the next attractive steps for those who want to stay in the region,” said Mr Ziegler.

The number of people who live in Dubai and work in Abu Dhabi tripled to 3 per cent. However, Dubai remains the most popular destination because of its highly developed infrastructure and relative social openness, gulftalent.com said.

Mr Ziegler said that while the trend would likely continue for three to five years, the balance would tip as Abu Dhabi and Doha housing developments were completed.

Looking ahead, the outlook is mixed. The survey shows 20 per cent of companies plan further job cuts in the final quarter of this year while 51 per cent plan to expand their staff to make up for past layoffs. While recruitment is expected to pick up early next year, it is unlikely to reach the peak levels of last year for some time, the report said.


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The man in demand at Dubai Inc

A western businessman who has been working in the UAE for many years says this: “What we need are more like Sheikh Ahmed.

“He’s spent his business career listening to the advice of top-class international experts and advisers and taking that advice, so long it did not conflict with his own core instincts. Maybe if Dubai did that more … ”

He does not finish the sentence, but the implication is clear, especially in the current climate of economic uncertainty that hangs over the emirate.

If Dubai was more in touch with international business and financial opinion, as Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum undoubtedly is, perhaps it would be better placed to weather the financial storm that has blown up over the debt delay request by Dubai World.

The 50-year-old chairman of Emirates Airline certainly has plenty of international experience derived from the 24 years he has led the carrier to its position as the fourth-largest in the world by passenger kilometres flown.

But Sheikh Ahmed now finds himself increasingly involved in the internal business affairs of the emirate through his role as the chairman of the Supreme Fiscal Committee, as well as many other jobs at the top of Dubai’s key transport and trading infrastructure.

So far, by common agreement and on the evidence of public pronouncements, Sheikh Ahmed has had a good crisis. His power base, the Emirates Group, remains a rock of stability in the shifting Dubai business scene, though it faces challenges as a result of the global downturn in aviation.

While leading executives of Dubai Inc, who might have been regarded as rivals before the crisis, have seen their influence wane, his has grown.

It is a testament to his business acumen and his stature in the circle of advisers to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that his services are being called on with increasing regularity.

The relationship with the ruler is vital. Although Sheikh Ahmed is a few years younger than Sheikh Mohammed, he is actually his uncle. Despite that status, he was willing to learn from and offer support to his older nephew since the beginning of his career.

While his schooling was undertaken mainly in Dubai, with trips to Europe for English language experience, his first real exposure to life outside the UAE was as an undergraduate at the University of Denver, in Colorado, where he studied political science.

A close friend recalls how the young Sheikh Ahmed had an early lesson in financial reality when his application for an American Express credit card was declined on the grounds that his comparatively meagre student allowance did not qualify him for membership.

On graduation, it was natural for him to serve an apprenticeship in statecraft, administration and business as a shadow for the young Sheikh Mohammed when the future Ruler was himself learning the ropes. In 1985 he was appointed to the job that has defined his career and helped define modern Dubai.

Before then, the UAE had no airline of its own. Gulf Air, jointly owned by Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, was supposed to service Dubai and the other emirates.

A dispute with Pakistan over landing rights offered Sheikh Mohammed, by then Dubai’s crown prince, his opportunity and one of the most enduring and mutually beneficial partnerships in world aviation began.

Maurice Flanagan, a former British Airways executive seconded to handle services at Dubai’s fledgling airport, was asked to be the chief executive to Sheikh Ahmed’s chairmanship of the new airline.

They were very different in background and temperament. Mr Flanagan, from Lancashire in the UK, was a former Royal Air Force officer, a serious footballer and a part-time playwright. Sheikh Ahmed respected the experience he had built up in the aviation industry and was determined to learn from the older man.

The two were joined by another Briton, Tim Clark, a former executive at the carrier British Caledonian, and Emirates was born on US$10 million (Dh36.7m) of seed capital. The name reflected the ambition to be the UAE flag carrier, an aim ultimately dashed in 2003 when Abu Dhabi launched Etihad.

It is almost impossible to downplay the role Emirates played in the explosive development of Dubai.

“Dubai’s economic strategy is about three things: people, goods and money,” says a management consultant working for the Dubai Government. “Emirates is the main agency for moving the first two and helps to make the third.”

From two leased aeroplanes, the Emirates fleet has grown to 141 aircraft serving 101 destinations. Under Sheikh Ahmed’s leadership, it has won numerous airline industry awards and has instituted a series of innovative passenger facilities.

It has ordered the largest number of the Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft and is committed to expansion despite the global financial crisis. Indeed, it views the downturn as an opportunity to acquire new routes as others pare back their services.

The spin-offs from Emirates’s growth have shaped modern Dubai. Passengers need lodgings, shopping, transport, restaurants and leisure amenities. Emirates has been a key lobbying group to have such facilities built to international standards.

Sheikh Ahmed has played a personal role in one aspect of the leisure industry explosion in Dubai by opening two of the emirate’s leading hotels, the Grosvenor House and the Royal Meridien.

“He is very hands on and involved,” says a former western diplomat who claims him as a friend. “He does not just sit in an office … he goes to work and knows the business and knows his people.”

The chief executive of a rival airline says Sheikh Ahmed “is by far the most approachable and switched-on aviation executive I’ve dealt with in the Middle East, especially during the crisis”.

Last year was a big year for him and for Emirates. The airline moved into its new dedicated home in Dubai’s Terminal 3, took delivery of its first A380, and Sheikh Ahmed ceased to be known as “the most eligible bachelor in the UAE” when he married the daughter of Sheikh Obaid bin Thani Al Maktoum.

Next year promises to be even more challenging. The world aviation industry is recovering, albeit slowly, from the damage sustained last year when oil prices briefly touched record a record $147 a barrel, sending fuel prices, the industry’s main operating cost, soaring.

Sheikh Ahmed’s response to previous crises has been almost Napoleonic – audacity, always audacity. During the first Gulf War, Emirates remained in the air when competitors cancelled services. It gave the whole industry a shot in the arm by confirming its commitment to A380 orders just weeks after the 9/11 attacks.

Sheikh Ahmed’s in-box at Emirates next year will have two main files: one marked “Al Maktoum airport”, and the other “A380s”.

While doubts have arisen about the new Dubai airport since the Dubai World announcement, the word is that work is progressing and its first runway and facilities will open in 2011.

On the A380s, of which 53 are under firm order, the airline has made no changes to its plans.

How both those projects proceed will depend at least in part on Sheikh Ahmed’s job on the Supreme Fiscal Committee. After the Dubai World controversy, he has already made it clear that Emirates does not have state backing. It either flies or falls as a commercial business with a steady profits record and cash-generating operations.

On the other hand, it is counted in the group of Dubai businesses under the umbrella of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the corporate entities of which hold a large amount of the emirate’s declared debts.

The possibility that Emirates might be sold, or seek a public stock listing, has been raised and dismissed several times in the past year.

Sheikh Ahmed will argue his case from within the Supreme Fiscal Committee with his Emirates business heritage very much in mind.

A long-term friend tells how one of Sheikh Ahmed’s favourite pastimes is fishing and how he has great skill in unravelling lines that may get tangled when many fish bite at once.

The future of Emirates, and to a large degree of Dubai, will depend on his ability to help unravel the financial entanglements of the emirate.


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Dubai OFWs in face of emirate’s credit crisis

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—With the repercussions of Dubai’s worst financial crisis still hanging thick in the air like lost secrets, life for most Filipinos working in this Middle Eastern cosmopolitan enclave goes on, their resilience hanging tough against yet another litmus test.

Christopher Benecio, a 30-year-old civil engineer from Roxas City, Panay came to Dubai November last year along with four other Filipino engineers. At the time, Dubai was already beginning to feel the effect of the global recession as companies started downsizing and retrenching in bulk.

By March the following year, all three of Benecio’s batch mates had already been terminated, with the first to lose his job in January.

Benecio has gone back to the Philippines, having left Dubai on December 5 this year on a paid vacation. But, he said, given the situation of his employer (Arif & Bintoak Consulting Architects and Engineers), he said he might opt to work for his previous employer, Megawide Construction in Makati, Metro Manila.

“We were getting fewer and fewer projects,” Benecio said, adding that Arif & Bintoak has resorted to implementing a one-month forced unpaid leave to cut cost. “If there was still no project after that period, it’s another forced leave or you can choose to be terminated,” he added. This, however, could not immediately be confirmed from company officials.

Prior to implementing a forced leave, the company cut down salaries of its employees by 10 percent and took away benefits, according to Benecio.

Moreover, he said, the situation at Arif & Bintoak is uncertain. “You don’t know when you’d finally get your notice of termination. It’s very difficult to work under that situation,” he said. “So why go back?”

Benecio did not divulge how much he was getting; he said he was able to save just enough to keep him and his family—a housewife and two children aged six and four—going during the transition to his old job when he returns home.

Benecio said he has submitted his resume to several companies in other countries and was awaiting reply.

Dubai’s construction sector was hardest hit by the global recession as the emirate’s real estate bubble burst. This being a result of what financial gurus said was the reckless and unsustainable lending practices arising from the deregulation and securitization of real estate mortgages in the United States. These mortgage-backed securities reinforced risky lending practices and, in the process, fed a global speculative real estate bubble.

Arif & Bintoak Consulting Architects and Engineers, which was established in 1975, has a portfolio that includes large-scale urban developments and had reported an annual project value of approximately $490 million.

Unlike Benecio, however, 58-year-old Alfredo Ranin, a former seaman who is now quality control officer at Wartsila Middle East and due to retire in 2011, said he’ll finish his remaining two years with the company and go home where, he said, work is also waiting for him. Home is Orion, Bataan, where his housewife, five children, and five grandchildren are.

Ranin, who has been in Dubai since 1992, said Wartsila UAE is “still busy” providing services to various ship owners, including commercial ones needing dry docking.
He said several fellow OFWs have left Wartsila UAE, apparently to dodge the effects of the ongoing crisis. “They have sought better employment opportunities at another Wartsila operation elsewhere or at a different company.”

“I’m staying. I’ll finish the two years then head home,” Ranin said.

Established in 1834 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Wartsila manufactures large diesel and gas engines for ships and power generation companies. In 2008 its total workforce was 18,810 spread in several countries across the globe.

Twenty-four-year-old Katrina “Kate” Oquialda, for her part, first arrived in Dubai on March 29, 2008 on a visit visa. She found a job in June of that year as a sales merchandiser. She quit in December 2008. Failing to find a new job, she went home in March this year, and came back in August, again on a visit visa.

All in a month’s time upon her arrival, she found a job as a hotel receptionist, but resigned because she found a better-paying one as waitress at a beach bar, and then resigned again because the third one—cashier at a high-end candy and chocolate shop Candylicious—is “much, much better,” she said.

Candylicious is located in what has been hyped as the biggest mall in the world—Dubai Mall, a $20-billion project that has a wall-sized aquarium and about 1,200 shops. It opened in November last year.

Oquialda, whose family lives in Pasay, said it was tougher looking for a job in Dubai earlier this year when the effects of the global recession was at its height than it is in the past few months. “There were more job opportunities. In fact, I was able to find three in only a month’s time,” she said.

Upon her return to Dubai, Oquialda, obviously a risk-taker, had about $1,000, that, she said, her mother gave her, and which she used for the rent, utilities, and food during the time she was job-hunting. With the high cost of living in Dubai, $1,000 (or about 3,672) could only last for barely two months.

Oquialda said she’ll continue taking her chances in Dubai. “It’s a lot more difficult to find a job in the Philippines than it is here,” she said.

Arnel Sanchez, who holds a degree in accountancy with earned units in MBA and MPA arrived in Dubai on January1, 2009 to try his luck. He came on a spouse visa arranged by his wife, Mary Grace, an architect by profession working currently as senior designer at Josef Gartner GmbH-Dubai.

Sanchez was able to secure employment as purchase officer at a steel company in the Dubai Investment Park, a free trade zone, around August. He, however, quit after a month when a friend convinced him to transfer to another company which has a better offer; nothing came of it.

“I thought I would be able to move in to the new company, but nay. Now, I’m back looking for another job. That episode taught me a lesson—be contented with what you have,” he said, noting that in these trying Dubai times, the best way to go is stay where you are and weather it.

Sanchez said it’s difficult to look for a job that fits his mold. “They (prospective employers) ask for a driver’s license and ‘UAE experience,’” he explained.

Being a purchase officer, Sanchez needs mobility and, therefore, a driver’s license. It takes months in classroom lecture, driving lessons, and actual driving tests; and, at times, up to 10,000 dirhams (P130,000) to obtain a driver’s license in Dubai because of strict government measures.

Seldom does one pass an actual test on first try; it usually takes four to five attempts. A student who has failed is required to undergo lecture again before going through another actual test. The repeated lecture and actual test require another round of payments, which explains the prohibitive total cost.

Jobless as he is, Sanchez’s chances of getting a driver’s license is nil—he doesn’t have the money. Despite this, his hopes remain high. “Despite the challenges of the current economy here in Dubai and all over the world, I still don’t think it’s a bad time to be looking for a job. Demand is still high and good offers can be found at plenty of places,” he said, adding that he will also opt to apply for other jobs.

Josef Gartner GmbH—Dubai is part of the Gartner Group, which is headquartered in Germany and is engaged in steel and glass architectural structures with offices in 11 countries.

Sanchez and his wife have a five-year-old daughter staying with Sanchez’s parents in Davao.

According to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dubai has the most number of OFWs from among the country’s seven emirates.

The UAE, as of 2008 has 299,241 OFWs, of which 167,264 were in Dubai; 85,999 in Abu Dhabi; 28,856 in Sharjah; 9,824 in Raz al Khaima; 4,914 in Aj Man; 1,829 in Um al Qain, and 555 in Fujairah, according to MFA.

There were no immediately available official figures on the number of OFWs that have gone home due to the recession and Dubai’s debt woes.

On November 25, 2009, Dubai requested a freeze on debt repayments by its largest and most indebted group, Dubai World, liable for $59 billion. This sent shock waves in stock markets around the world as equities dropped and fears of a looming collapse of the emirate’s economy sprang forth.

This reporter had since repeatedly tried to reach Philippine Ambassador to UAE Grace Princesa, and Consul General Noel Servigon for their comments—but received no reply.


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OFWs based in Dubai to lose bonus, not jobs

First the good news: Filipinos in Dubai are not likely to lose their jobs just yet. Then the bad news: Filipinos in Dubai are not likely to receive a Christmas bonus.

While massive layoffs in Dubai are not imminent, delayed payments and reduced work hours have already been felt by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the debt-hit emirate, the Labor department said.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said most OFWs’ wages in Dubai are delayed by one to two months but quelled fears of a repeat of the massive layoffs similar to the onset of the US-led economic crisis last year.

"Some might not get their Christmas bonus," Roque told GMANews.TV during the 76th anniversary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Tuesday. "They won’t lose jobs yet, their income would just be lessened."

The so-called Dubai debt crisis took place after a United Arab Emirates (UAE) investment company deferred debt payments for six months. This stalled the ongoing development of Dubai’s artificial islands and other construction projects.

Worries arose that Filipinos working in construction would be laid off due to the crisis.

But Roque said that except for architects and engineers, only a small percentage of the 250,000 documented and undocumented Filipinos working in the glittering Arab city are engaged in construction. Most Filipinos in the emirate are in hotels, restaurants, and IT companies.

In case OFWs do lose their jobs in Dubai, Roque assured the government would be able to secure other employment for them in neighboring Gulf countries. [See: DOLE, OWWA to provide aid to Dubai-based OFWs]

"We still have between 60,000 and 70,000 unfilled job vacancies in Qatar alone," Roque said.

But Julius Cainglet of the Federation of Free Workers said the layoffs in Dubai had already begun even in sectors deemed by the DOLE chief as safe for Pinoys.

"My friend who went to Dubai six months ago is already back in the country. He is from the IT sector. Layoffs are already happening," Cainglet told GMANews.TV.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) feared that the job losses may cut OFW remittances by as much as $300 million. Next to Saudi Arabia, where some two million Filipinos work, the UAE is the Philippines’ biggest source of remittances in the Middle East.

But the TUCP admitted that remittances are expected to grow by $500 million to $1 billion to an unprecedented $17 billion this year after OFWs are seen to send more cash home to assist their families whose houses have been damaged by typhoons.


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Dubai jobseekers warned of risks

MANILA, Philippines – Job seekers should be wary of offers to work in Dubai in light of the financial crisis besetting the Middle Eastern emirate, according to Susan “Toots” Ople, a former labor undersecretary.

Ople, president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center which supports overseas Filipino workers, noted that jobs may become scarce in Dubai since foreign investors are in a wait-and-see mode when it comes to the area. Thus, offers of job openings there may be questionable.

Dubai, which conjures up images of opulence and wealth, is now experiencing a financial crisis and has sought a six-month moratorium on debt repayment.

“We're calling on job seekers to avoid Dubai if they are offered jobs there, especially as tourist workers,” Ople said at the Kapihan sa Sulo forum.

She also said families of overseas Filipino workers in Dubai should be sensitive to the difficulties that their loved ones overseas are facing because of the crisis.

She said some wives may be expecting their husbands abroad to send home more money for the holidays, but the overseas workers may not be earning much now.

Because of the financial crisis in Dubai, many Filipino workers there are becoming worried over the security of their jobs, according to OFW groups in the area.

Migrante-United Arab Emirates earlier noted that multi and transnational companies have begun imposing salary reduction schemes in order to bring down operational costs. Workers have to agree to it because the other option is to be out of a job, it said.
The Blas F. Ople Policy Center has also reminded the government that it needs to be prepared to help its countrymen should the crisis in Dubai worsen. It said 250,000 Filipinos could be out of jobs if the situation does not improve.


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Dubai faces gradual exodus of expatriate workers

DUBAI — Construction worker Bilal is in a happy mood as he takes his lunch break sitting next to an artificial lake near Dubai's showpiece Mall of the Emirates.

But he admits anxiety about the end of his contract in one year's time, when the 24-year-old may have to return to Bangladesh.

The shock news of Dubai's debt crisis is not expected to spark an immediate surge in redundancies in the once-booming desert metropolis, but a gradual exodus is likely as workers' contracts expire and the lack of new projects means they are unable to find new jobs.

Before last year's credit crunch, Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates were estimated at the end of 2007 to have a population of 6.4 million people -- of whom 5.5 million were foreigners.

More than three million were registered with the ministry of labour as workers, when Dubai was still racing to build enormous shopping centres and business districts.

But now the picture is very different. Even before state-owned Dubai World said last week that it wants to halt payments on its huge debts for at least six months, property prices were down by half and office rents by as much as two-thirds.

People from Asia, who form the majority of the construction workforce, may find their livelihoods at stake following the mothballing of hundreds of new building projects worth tens of billions of dollars.

Ferraris, Aston Martins and Maseratis are parked less than 100 metres (yards) away from where Bilal sits by the lake on Thursday, his blue safety helmet alongside him.

There is no indication anywhere nearby of the financial crisis swirling across the city.

"No, I'm not worried" about losing my job, he says. "I have worked here for two years, our company's agreement is for three years."

But he concedes that not knowing where he will work when his contract expires is a source of concern.

For Indian site engineer Thomas, unemployment is a already a reality.

He walked out of Thiruvananthapuram International airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala early on Thursday, after 10 years in the Emirati city, with just two items of hand luggage and a bundle of clothes.

His contract had been terminated by his Dubai-based construction company after the project was hit by the economic crisis.

"I was working as a site engineer in Dubai. I've no other choice than return to Kerala," 50-year-old Thomas told AFP.

"My flight was full of people returning. Sooner or later almost 80 percent of the workers will have to leave Dubai."

He said that during his time in Dubai, where many southern Indians found work, he had sent home enough money to build a house in his village and pay for his three sisters' weddings.

"What to do now?" he said. "I don't have a hefty bank balance or land to support my family. I may try my luck in Saudi Arabia or Muscat."

"Many companies in Dubai have not paid the workers for the last three months," Thomas said.

Foreign workers in the Gulf city state often face major challenges if they have to leave. A proportion have been allowed to bring in their families, which makes expatriate life easier but causes extra upheaval if the main breadwinner loses his or her job.

An even bigger proportion of Asian workers in the UAE send some of their wages as remittances to their families back home.

Dubai security guard Pradeep, 36, has connections in the transport industry in India and believes he can find a job there if he has to.

"I can also return to my home country and work," he said.

But his salary working in the emirate is enough for him to support his family at home.

He first came to Dubai in 2003, then later returned to India to work before coming back to Dubai in early 2009.

"Job is not secure, job is not secure," he said with a smile, slowly shaking his head. "The economy is very down." He added that, although this will not affect him immediately, it could cause him to lose his job in the future.

If this happens, Pradeep says he will leave Dubai once more.

Job security is "our main concern these days," said Jomy, a 35-year-old Indian working in Dubai as a contractor with a company that sells apples.

Jomy's friend Jino, also Indian, describes the economic troubles as being "industry-specific," especially in the banking sector in which he works.

"So many industries linked to it will have a chain reaction" from banking to other sectors, he added.

The change in lifestyle can be dramatic when people have to return home.

Satheesh, a civil engineer, worked in the Gulf for 19 years, including the last two years in Dubai. Now he is back home in Kochi, Kerala.

"I was getting 200,000 rupees (4,300 dollars) a month in Dubai. But now I'm unemployed as my company asked me to go on long leave and now it has closed down the project. The management has shelved 450 Indian workers. It's a bad time for me."

Many unskilled foreign workers in Dubai, with no special knowledge about the crisis, are broadly worried and just hoping for the best.

But even those specialising in finance are fearful of the prospects for once-booming Dubai.

"Of course I'm worried (the economic situation) is going to affect my bonuses by the end of the year, and there might be some job losses," said Sheraz, a Pakistani internal auditor working in Dubai for a major retail group.

"There's still a lot of uncertainty around. We don't know what will happen next year," the 27-year-old said.


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Thousands of Palestinians may lose jobs in Dubai crash

Thousands of Palestinian workers in Dubai may lose their jobs due to the financial crisis there, economists project.

Over the past few months, thousands of the estimated 100,000 Palestinian laborers working in Dubai have lost their jobs. The Gulf state's economy is grinding to a halt, due to the huge international debts the country took on to drive its breakneck expansion coupled with the global economic crisis.

Last week, the Dubai government announced its flagship conglomerate needed a six-month halt to interest payments on $59 billion worth of debt.
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Arab financial analysts said the crisis in the Gulf states, compounded by debts and falling oil prices, will affect the economy in the Palestinian Territories, where many families depend on money from relatives working in Dubai, primarily in construction.

Other Palestinians work as engineers, instructors and in technology-related professions in Dubai. Some have started construction businesses there, such as Arab-Tech, which was among the country's first victims of the financial crisis.

This recession resulted in the cancelation of building contracts and projects and sent the industry into a freeze, prompting many Palestinians to leave Dubai for neighboring Qatar - which last month injected $6 billion in fresh capital into its banking system to "restore confidence" in its own economy - and in Saudi Arabia. Some have returned to the West Bank.

One Dubai-based Palestinian businessman said Palestinians working in Dubai were generally "highly skilled personnel with long years of experience in their respective fields."

"Many West Bank families are losing their sources of income, as these people are no longer sending much money," he told Haaretz.

The sheikdom of Dubai, ruled by the Makhtoum family, has staked its future on plans to become the tourist, transport and finance hub of the Middle East, encouraging outsiders to buy apartments in the plethora of new tower blocks sprouting like poplars across the sand. But the international financial conglomerate Citigroup warned has warned that several Dubai developers have been caught in a severe squeeze, and their projects are increasingly unlikely to be finished.


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