Dubai, March 23:

Hundreds of construction workers smashed cars and office windows at the site of the Burj Dubai, expected to be the world’s tallest building, to demand higher wages and protest against unfair working conditions, the local newspaper Gulf News reported.

The paper quoted police officials in Dubai as saying the violence, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, was not acceptable. However, nobody was arrested or deported.

The predominantly South Asian workers, employed by construction firm Al Naboodah Laing O’Rourke, caused about $960,000 worth of damage after they smashed more than a dozen cars and the windows of their administration’s temporary offices at the site, a government official was quoted as saying. A statement from the construction firm sent to the media said the dispute had been resolved and that work had resumed.

Lieutenant Colonel Rashid Al Jumairi, an interior ministry official, called the workers’ demands ‘simple’ and condemned the violence. The protesters were angry as on-site security officers harassed them and buses usually transported them to the building sites an hour before they began work. “We do not get paid for this time,” said a worker.

Workers in the UAE, where Dubai is one of the seven sheikhdoms that make the federation, generally work 12-hour shifts. The workers also complained they left the site at least an hour after finishing work because there are only nine machines to punch time cards for 3,000 workers.