Hope for oil workers ‘owed thousands in unpaid salaries’ as boss says he will return to UAE

Employees say there are at least 50 of them owed money from Scotsman Calum Melville, with one claiming that the amount totals $3 million.

Calum Melville says he will return to Dubai. Craig Watson / SNS Group

DUBAI // Oil workers of a Dubai company who claim to be owed salaries amounting to tens of thousands of dirhams have been offered hope after the man at the centre of the allegations said he was returning to the UAE.

Employees of Oilfield Integrity Management (OIM) Energy Group, based in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), said they were not paid for months for their work on oil rig operations around the Middle East.

Many had given up hope of recovering their pay but Calum Melville, an employee of the company whose wife is listed as an owner on business documents, said he would return to resolve all the issues this month.

Mr Melville rented an office at The Palladium in JLT to run the oil rig building and maintenance business last February.

Twelve months later, and with nearly all the staff claiming to be owed money in unpaid salaries, the offices lie empty and Mr Melville is in Scotland.

“There are at least 50 staff who have outstanding salary payments for the last year,” said Jack Boath, a Briton who managed eight rig contracts with Aban Offshore in South Africa, Iran and Singapore for Dh40,000 a month.

“If someone had said to me nine months down the line I’m still not being paid, I would have left a long time ago.

“You get promises and letters claiming we will be paid, but that never happened.”

Another worker, “Adrian”, worked with the company until last October, managing repairs for offshore rigs, but was only paid once in eight months.

“Calum owes in the region of US$3 million [Dh11m] in outstanding salaries and unpaid work for contracts,” Adrian said. “He’s done a runner and is back in Aberdeen. It was one of those Thursday night escapes.”

Mrs Melville left the UAE last December, weeks before her husband. She is also expected to return to Dubai this month.

Jay Sloper, the company’s global health and safety manager at the time, claims that he is owed two months’ salary.

Last June, the staff took their claims to Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, the licensing body for businesses in JLT.

DMCC would not respond to requests for confirmation of submitted complaints against OIM.

As his partner had just given birth, Mr Sloper was forced to return home to Australia to find work. He said he was promised a “goodwill gesture” of Dh61,041 in a letter with stamps from the company and commodities centre, signed by company office manager Lauren Massam.

Mr Sloper said he had yet to receive payment.

Employees now face being banned from travel as they struggle to pay rent or support families as credit card bills and loans go unpaid.

A police report last year shows that Mr Melville was fined Dh3,000 for not paying for hired construction materials and his wife Susan, who is listed as OIM’s chief executive, was arrested for presenting a “dishonoured cheque on purpose”.

A cheque worth Dh67,000 was returned on May 4 last year, and another written for Dh34,500 was returned three weeks later.

Mr Melville, who has been declared bankrupt in the UK, had been living in Dubai since 2014. In the 17 months before he left, he had been living at Jumeirah Heights in a rented two-bedroom duplex apartment.

His landlord there said he was pursuing legal action for money owed in unpaid rent.

OIM declined to comment. Mr Melville denied the accusations from employees and said he would return to Dubai to rectify the situation.

He declined to comment further.