Dubai’s workers struggle with cost of living crisis

Dubai’s workers struggle with cost of living crisis

On any normal weekday, Dubai’s food delivery riders would be up and out early, but in recent days, banks of motorbikes have been parked outside their budget dormitories. “They are all sleeping,” said one doorman in Bur Dubai, the central district where many cram into apartments.

Food delivery riders for Talabat, a unit of Germany’s Delivery Hero, have gone on an illegal strike to protest over their low wages as the rising cost of living sparks widening unrest among the poorest workers in the Gulf entrepôt, a playground for some of the world’s richest people.

The rare outbreak of industrial unrest in the Gulf state comes as fuel prices have soared since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has slashed the take-home pay of riders, who purchase their own petrol. With inflation hitting other products such as food, living standards are declining for workers who eke out a living on slim salaries.

“The salaries are too low and petrol is too high. This is a problem — everyone stopped work,” said one rider at Talabat, who did not want his name to be published. Last year he “made Dh2,500 ($681), now it is Dh1,500 [a month].”

The Talabat walkout, which has hobbled the app’s