MIDDLE EAST
FEATURE
The
bbillboardillboard
fixxersers
t is approaching noon and,
I
beneath the baking sun, three
men are toiling just metres
away from the speeding cars
of a busy Dubai highway. Al-
most as far as the eye can see, an old
advertising banner lies slumped on
the pavement; in the other direc-
tion, and for an equally long stretch of
road, the remaining part of the giant
ad is still hanging from a corrugated
metal wall. It is the three men’s job to Jobin Skariah Thomas, Anwar
take it down.
Hussain and Ranjan Sarker
Anwar Hussain, Ranjan Sarker and
Jobin Skariah Thomas work for Emir- overtime. two years, and sends home around sun, says that he calls his family every
ates Neon Group’s 18-strong billboard A typical day could see the team Dhs550 per month: “It’s a good salary week. He has a wife and three chil-
installation team. They are vital mem- installing anything from a wall ban- here. Better than Bangladesh,” he says. dren, including an 18-year-old son
bers of a multimillion dollar outdoor ner to a rooftop sign or lamppost ad. The team’s supervisor Firoz Khan who is at college, back home in Bang-
advertising industry, which at the The men are taken to various sites acknowledges that the work is haz- ladesh. His family give him a ‘missed
height of the advertising boom last around the UAE by driver Elias Khan, ardous, but says that ENG undertakes call’, and then he calls them back. “I
year saw advertisers pay as much as who they occasionally they call on for comprehensive training. call from the internet, it’s cheap that
$1.5 million for a one-year contract for water and, during the one-hour lunch “Some of the sites are very danger- way,” he says.
a single billboard on Dubai’s Sheikh break, food. ous. So we give all the safety equip- It’s no different for Hussain’s super-
Zayed Road. There are hazards to the work: the ment and medicines to the team lead- viser, 38-year-old Farhad Zaidi, who
Such riches are unknown to the team is often required to work on ers,” says 27 year old Khan, who has has worked for ENG for 21 years. “My
three workers: The youngest mem- scaffolding 18 metres high, or in the worked for ENG for three and a half family is in Pakistan. I get to see them
ber of the team takes home Dhs750 years. “If it is too windy it can be very every two years—it’s a very long time
a month, after a deduction for hous-
We don’t get work in
dangerous. If there’s too much wind to [wait to] meet the family,” he says.
ing. But that doesn’t mean the team we stop work altogether.” “I’m missing them too much.”
hasn’t been hit by the advertising
our own countries.
Khan says that ENG’s employ- Emirates Neon Group owns ENG
downturn. A special daily allowance There’s no work. ees come from a multitude of back- Media, which publishes Media Week.
of up to Dhs15—paid to cover food grounds. “We have Filipino staff, Hin-
expenses on long-distance assign- midday sun, or adjacent to busy roads dus, Muslims, Christians, Sri Lankans,
PROFILE
ments to places such as Abu Dhabi, (when danger cones are set out to Chinese, Kenyans, Egyptians, Leba- Anwar Hussain
Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah—has warn motorists). nese, Pakistanis, Indians. All people
TITLE: Team leader
been temporarily withdrawn due to Another, slightly different form of of mixed cultures, but we’re working
PAY: Dhs1,250/month plus overtime
the advertising slump. danger comes from the Dubai Police. together as a family.”
NATIONALITY: Bangladeshi
Still, the men—speaking through The team must carry permits to install But members of this family share a
AGE: 43
a company translator—claim to be advertising at certain sites; occasion- common hardship: that their blood
happy. “I like the job, I’m satisfied,” ally, the forms are incomplete, which relatives are thousands of miles away,
Ranjan Sarker
says 26 year old assistant fitter Jobin means that—should a police officer back in their country of origin. (ENG
Skariah Thomas. “We don’t get work stop the men—the team leader can gives its billboard fixers two months’
TITLE: Assistant fitter
in our own countries. There’s no be held at the police station until the holiday every two years).
PAY: Dhs950/month plus overtime
work,” he adds. company’s public relations officer ar- “They’re working 20 years for this
NATIONALITY: Bangladeshi
rives with the completed paperwork. company—they’ve given their bread,
AGE: 30
T
he men start work at 5.30am, Assistant fitter Ranjan Sarker does left their family and kids at home,”
setting off from Sharjah— not seem concerned about these dan- says Khan. “They miss their families. Jobin Skariah Thomas
where they sleep two or three gers—but says that there’s no escaping Their small kids are there [at home]—
TITLE: Assistant fitter
to a room—to avoid the heavy Dubai- the baking temperatures of the desert. they can’t see how they’re doing.”
PAY: Dhs750/month plus overtime
bound traffic. Their day ends at 2pm, “We have safety equipment, so it’s no Team leader Anwar Hussain, speak-
NATIONALITY: Indian
although they sometimes work until problem. My problem is the climate,” ing at the billboard site near Dubai’s
AGE: 26
early evening, for which they are paid he says. Sarker has been married for World Trade Centre in the baking
14 / 10 MAY 2009
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