Better Work and Housing for Civic Workers Soon

DUBAI - Blue collar workers with Dubai Municipality are likely to have better interactions with their superiors, new kitchens at their labour accommodations, and probably new playgrounds for taking their stress out, thanks to the results of a job satisfaction survey.

In what is dubbed an unprecedented initiative by any government department, the civic body has conducted a survey to study the level of job satisfaction among a sample of more than 1,200 workers in six labour accommodations under the Municipality.

The study also assessed their satisfaction with regards to their living standards in the housing facilities, the rapport and interaction they have with their supervisors and other seniors, the cooperation from their coworkers, and their general requirements.

Head of Policy Studies Section at the Municipality Qamar Fadhlani told Khaleej Times that most of the workers had expressed high level of satisfaction related to their jobs. He said a set of recommendations was being prepared to address the grievances and requirements pointed out by the workers.

“More than 90 per cent of them are happy with regards to the eight-hour job, proper place to stay, enough security, mosques and other facilities in their accommodations. But, many of them have said that they cannot afford the food delivered by catering services,” said Fadhlani.

As a solution, Fadhlani said, a proposal to establish new cooking facilities at workers’ accommodation will be submitted to the higher authorities. “It’s dangerous if they start cooking in their rooms. So, we would like to propose for separate kitchens in their camps. We will put new safety regulations in place and organise training programmes for them,” he said.

Another concern that workers expressed was that they had little interaction and direct guidance from their high level officials. “We are going to ask heads of sections and directors of departments to make more field visits and interact more with these workers so that both the parties can benefit out of it,” said Fadhlani.

Not having proper playgrounds to exercise and unwind was another 
complaint aired by many workers. “Some labour accommodations have enough areas for the workers to play games. Since the lack of space is an issue in others, we are thinking of arranging buses to take them (the workers) to nearby playgrounds on a daily basis,” Fadhlani added.

Director of Human Resources Department Abdullah Abdul Rahman said collecting workers’ feedback was in line with the Municipality’s efforts to take care of its human resources. Questionnaires in English and Arabic were sent out to labour accommodations where the workers were helped by translators in five other languages to answer them.


Source