Use of cargo vehicles to transport people banned - Gulfnews

Quote: Dubai was the first emirate to introduce the law several years ago, followed by Abu Dhabi in 2002. The ministry issued the decree to ban the practice throughout the country. After the ban was implemented in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, there was a dramatic decline in the number of casualties among workers who were being driven from their housing compounds to their work sites and vice versa.


Gulf News File

Transported workers will be safer, but are they better off? The ban will increase the costs of using low-wage workers. In the end, we can expect that their wages will fall. Mandated benefits benefit workers only if they value the benefit more than it costs the company to provide. But then the question becomes why isn't the benefit already voluntarily provided? I suspect these workers would prefer to repatriate money to their families in their home countries rather than have safer travel.