ABU DHABI // When a car enters the Abu Dhabi Mall car park, men in green uniforms run to show the driver where to park and offer their services.
The 35 car washers at the mall work on commission and so more cars washed equals more money earned.
Despite the impending summer heat, the washers were satisfied with their working conditions.
“I send Dh700 home and keep the rest for my own expense. Our company is good, they treat us well. We have permission to rest if we feel tired,” said Bangladeshi Sohail, who is marking three years with the company by going home for a month-long holiday.
“I will come back because there is no job back home. I have to feed a family of five people and I can only do this by washing cars.”
His colleague and countryman Wasim, 24, said: “This is my first job here. I have made friends here and I’m quite OK with my work and life here.”
Mohiudin, 27, the washer’s duty supervisor, which provides car-washing services in the mall, said most of his staff were from Bangladesh. They work in two shifts, each nine hours.
He said the basic salary of a washer was Dh500 a month and that the rest was commissioned-based.
“If a boy washes 200 cars a month, then he will get an additional Dh300 as commission. We have set commission rates depending upon the number of cars that the washer cleans,” Mohiudin said.
“Apart from this the company provides accommodation and food. On average, a car washer usually earns Dh1,000 a month.”
“I have never shopped in this mall. It is beyond our imagination,” said Wasim. He has been doing the job for three years, leaving his home in Dhaka after paying an agent 250,000 taka (Dh11,802) to find him a job in Abu Dhabi.
Overall, said 25-year-old Sohail, customers treated the washers well and gave them tips, but a few were rude.
“Some treat us as if we are not human beings and even abuse us. But we remain silent because we are here to work.”
Sohail said it only took him a week to adjust to the car park’s high temperatures. “We feel we are better [off] than those workers who are working in the scorching sunlight. We should not complain.”
Mohiudin said his team were tough and did not usually get sick. If they do, the company gives them days off and takes them to hospital.
“We have a white medical card. We have to pay Dh20 to the doctor but have to buy medicine from our own pocket,” Wasim said.
During Ramadan, Mohiudin said, the car washers would only work evenings. “We don’t ask them to work while fasting and, also, there is no car rush during daytime.”
Like Wasim, Sohail does not shop in the mall “but one day I wish to do shopping from upstairs for my family,” he said.
Wasim, in contrast, dreams of owning one of the luxury cars that he washes every day.
akhaishgi@thenational.ae
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For more on the UAE’s car washers:
The National speaks to the unsung heroes who wash the nation’s cars at malls up and down the country.
■ Special report: Stories from the UAE's car washers
■ Finding customers is biggest concern among Ibn Battuta Mall car washers
■ Heat and humidity means task takes double the time, UAE car washers say
■ Mushrif Mall car washers fear effects of chemicals on their skin
