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UAE tackling labour issues, says Al Ka'abi
posted on 25/03/2007: 58 views
The UAE Government is currently engaged in a major, and multi-faceted, campaign to improve the conditions of the expatriate labour force in the country, Minister of Labour Ali Abdullah Al Ka'abi, said yesterday.
In an exclusive statement, Al Ka'abi said that the campaign, launched on the instructions of Vice President and Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was designed to tackle many of the problems currently faced by the labour force. These, he said, included health and safety concerns, the poor quality of accommodation, failure by companies to pay salaries promptly and the heavy burden placed upon workers as a result of the high fees and interest payments demanded by recruitment agencies in their home countries.
The Ministry is also preparing proposals for the introduction of a minimum wage structure, at first in the construction industry, and then to be expanded to other sectors, Al Ka'abi said.
"It is the Government's intention to devise rapidly a framework that will permit it to meet the relevant international standards relating to the rights of workers," he said.
The full text of the Minister's statement follows.
On instructions from His Highness the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, the UAE Government has, since last summer, been engaged on a major and concerted programme to ensure that the living and working conditions of the country's expatriate workforce is improved. Objectives of the programme have included the improvement of housing conditions and the enforcement of better quality health and safety rules, both at home and in the workplace. This programme is being carried out in consultation with, and in collaboration with, the governments of the UAE's constituent emirates.
Over 100 sub-standard accommodation complexes have already been closed down, those who formerly lived in them being provided with temporary housing pending the completion of the construction of new housing, built to a satisfactory standard in accordance with the appropriate international guidelines. Some of these new complexes have already been opened, and others are being rapidly built, at a cost of several hundred million US dollars.
Inspection of work sites and housing complexes has also been stepped up, with the number of Ministry of Labour inspectors being increased. Over the next few months, the number of inspectors should reach over 2,000, twenty times the number that there were in summer 2006, an indication of the seriousness with which the Government is tackling this task. A number of housing complexes have been determined to be sub-standard and have been closed down, with the companies concerned being warned that they will face substantial penalties if they do not provide adequate housing.
The inspectors, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, local health departments, the Ministry of Interior and other relevant official bodies, have also increased the amount of attention being paid to health and safety issues in the workplace and in housing accommodation, with a considerable increase in the number of unannounced, inspections.
Firms in breach of guidelines have been taken to court, while in some cases they have been advised that they will not be permitted to recruit further workers until they satisfy the Ministry that adequate conditions relating to housing, health and safety are being provided for their employees.
Employers have also been reminded by the Ministry that it is the statutory right of employees to receive their salaries and other benefits promptly and without deductions. The Ministry's staff have provided considerable assistance on a number of occasions to workers who have complained about delays in payment, and even though workers have been reminded that a cessation of work t is technically in breach of the law. During such reconciliation procedures, where the Ministry has found employers to be at fault, steps have been taken to ensure that they promptly take action to meet their commitments to their employees. Where this has not been effective, the Ministry has referred the matter to the courts for the taking of the necessary legal procedures.
Another step that has been taken is that is preparing for the introduction of a mandatory minimum wage throughout the country. The Ministry has embarked upon a detailed programme of research, the key deliverable of which will be a recommendation to the Council of Ministers that a framework for a minimum wage should be adopted. This will apply initially to the construction sector, in which many hundreds of thousands of people work, and will then be expanded to cover the entire workforce.
The new Labour Law, currently in preparation, will stipulate that the introduction and implementation of a minimum wage requires only a proposal from the Minister of Labour and approval by the Prime Minister, rather than the issuing of a Federal decree, which is the conventional procedure, and it is anticipated that this should make it possible to introduce the minimum wage framework more rapidly.
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The Government has noted, from its own investigations, as well as from reports made by other sources, that many of the problems faced by the UAE's expatriate workforce arises from the terms and conditions under which they were recruited by labour supply agencies in their countries of origin. These problems can include, for example, high fees, repayable at a high rate of interest.
The Ministry has, therefore, held consultations with the Ministries of Labour or their equivalents in the countries from which most expatriate workers are recruited and has signed Memoranda of Understanding to facilitate a greater regulation of labour recruitment and supply from these countries. It has been agreed that recruitment and labour supply companies in these countries should be held liable for any breach of local regulations where these relate to the supply of labour to the Emirates.
At a UAE level, the Ministry is reviewing the procedures for the regulation of UAE-based recruitment agencies, with a view to increasing the degree of regulation, while, pending completion of this review, no new licences for UAE-based recruitment agencies are being issued.
The Ministry is also studying the possibility of introducing government-run recruitment agencies, to regularise and rationalise the procedures for recruitment and to make it possible to eliminate irregularities at the UAE end of the recruitment process. (Emirates News Agency, WAM)
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