Fake employment prevalent in the UAE, and migrant workers suffer
Government policies in the UAE push for spreading fake employment in the country, which worsens working conditions for migrant workers.
The Emirates reduced the fees for issuing work permits for foreign employees in the middle of this year to stimulate companies that exceed the Emiratisation quotas.
Abu Dhabi raised the share of Emiratisation for highly skilled jobs in private sector companies with 50 or more workers, to 2% annually, in a decision announced earlier this year.
However, the government authorities did not specify what the system covers the “high-skilled jobs”, but according to Article (3) of Ministerial Resolution No. 18 of 2022, jobs are classified based on educational qualifications, productivity, occupational level or salary level, in addition to status Residence.
The UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation introduced fee reductions and a new classification system for private companies to determine the discount rate.
The cost of the work permit fee for a worker who is employed in the UAE and has a residence permit is 250 dirhams for all companies, regardless of their status in the new system.
Companies may be upgraded to Category 1 or downgraded to a lower category based on their compliance with the established criteria.
Based on this new classification system, companies in the first and second categories will receive discounts on service fees for work permits.
A company listed under the first category will be charged a fee of no more than 250 dirhams for a single work permit of two years, while companies listed under the second category will have to pay a fee of 1200 dirhams for a single two-year work permit.
The fee reduction applies to specific services, including issuing the two-year permit, the single-task work permit and the renewal of permits and contracts.
The ministry indicated that there are “simple but smart mechanisms that monitor the initiatives of companies and institutions” but did not mention any details about these monitoring systems.
Severe penalties parallel these incentives. Starting in January 2023, non-compliant companies will have to pay 6,000 UAE dirhams (US$1,633) per month for each unemployed Emirati per quota.
In recent decades, Gulf countries have implemented many laws to promote the employment of nationals in the private sector.
However, because many of these initiatives fail to address deficiencies in protecting public rights and workers’ rights in the Gulf private sector, their impact has been minimal.
In some cases, these settlement policies have led to the creation of “mock” employment that worsens working conditions for migrant workers.
