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Abu Dhabi: A toilet cleaner in need of urgent eye surgery has resigned from her job, accusing her company of not issuing medical cover since 2002 and forcing her to work 12-hour shifts in shopping mall washrooms. Last week Gulf News revealed how cleaners at one of the largest cleaning companies in the UAE had appealed to their employers for talks on working conditions. A representative from the company said on Monday that bosses will meet the workers when they return from leave in a month and a half. On Monday, Lourna Acopiabo, 36 and colleague Erlinda Sy, 43 said they filed their resignations for health reasons, claiming they could no longer work the long hours without receiving medical insurance as written in their contract.
Acopiabo was earning less than Dh2 an hour for 12-hour shifts.
She said she and her colleagues were sometimes forced to work 14-hour shifts when a fellow cleaner failed to show up for work.
She claims headaches and vomiting induced by her eye complaint were made worse by the long shifts. She was recently warned by a doctor that she needs urgent eye surgery. "I can't work like this any more. I want to work but not these long hours and not without medical cover," said Acopiabo, who does not know who will pay for her operation. Sy, who has worked for the company since 1998, said hundreds of other workers have been without medical cover since 2002. A consultant for the company in charge of working conditions and employee welfare in Dubai told Gulf News that 500 of the 1,500 Dubai-based cleaners had been without health cover since 2002 because their visas were issued in Abu Dhabi. "The company is negotiating with a health insurance firm and hospital and comprehensive cover for the workers will be supplied soon," he said. Meanwhile, he said the company has been accepting medical bills from the workers for the past three months.
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