The labour advocacy group Mafiwasta describes itself as a bunch of liberal do-gooders sticking [our] noses into other people’s business. That notwithstanding, the group is campaigning for the rights of expatriate workers in the United Arab Emirates, where trade unions are illegal and security forces round up and imprison protesters. Some right wing commentators, impressed by  the obscene wealth enjoyed by a minority at the expense of the workers on whose backs the economic ‘miracle’ is built, commend this approach to industrial relations as exemplifying ‘reconciliation rather than confrontation’, and hold up the UAE as the model for future development in the region. The Mafiwasta/Human Rights for Change Complaint to the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association, detailing the extent of human rights abuses in the UAE can be found here:

Exploitation of these workers, ranging from non-payment of wages to physical abuse, is not simply commonplace or widespread; as this document will show, it is systematic. The UAE’s labour laws are wholly biased in employers’ favour, and the mechanisms used to enforce the laws are completely ineffective. The government agency in charge, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, has neither the ability nor the willingness to execute its brief. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that the government as a whole, far from acting to protect workers, is an active participant in the abuse, profiting directly from a system which keeps a large migrant workforce in conditions of bondage.

This system of exploitation is underpinned by the denial of the most basic of human rights - the right to freely associate and to bargain collectively. Described as being “among the founding principles of the ILO”, the UAE has not signed core ILO Conventions No. 87 and 98 on Freedom of Association. According to the ILO, Conventions No. 87 and 98 form part of the most fundamental international labour law requirements.

Thanks: Barbara Meinhoff and Will in the comments.