Ministry to monitor salary payment

Ministry to monitor salary payment

The electronic wage payment system will make it easier for the labour ministry to check on companies that do not pay workers on time, said the minister on Wednesday.
"With the implementation of the electronic wage payment system by January, the ministry will be able to instantly check the status of payment of salaries to employees of the companies functioning in the country. This will ensure the timely payment of salaries. However, at the moment, we have no plans of fixing the minimum wage for labourers," said Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, the Labour Minister.
"With the new system, it will make it easier for the ministry to check on companies that do not pay on time. These companies will be flagged and repeat offences will result in stringent measures against the company," the minister said.

Cabinet decision

He was speaking following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with a US-based technology company called InfoSpan Gulf for electronic salary disbursement.
Similar MoU's were signed with companies like Workers Equity, Islamic Finance Company,UAE Exchange, Western Union, and Empost, by the ministry following the cabinets decision in June to make all salary payments electronic.

The Islamic Finance Company (IFC) has signed an agreement (October 7th) with the Ministry of Labor (MoL) to start implementing the 'Daman & Aman' program in the United Arab Emirates. The agreement comes as part of the ministry’s continuing efforts to develop and enhance the quality of its services as well as meeting the basic requirements of laborers.
The signing ceremony, which was held in the MoL premises in Abu Dhabi, was attended by H.E Dr. Ali Abdulla Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of Labor and Mr. Gaith bin Hamel Al Gaith, member of IFC Board of Directors.

During the signing ceremony, H.E Dr. Ali Abdulla Al Kaabi said: “In the past years, the MoL has put a lot of effort in finding the appropriate conditions and techniques to provide the best services. The agreement comes as part of our continuous efforts to develop and initiate a new mechanism to control, manage, and enhance the quality of our licensing process. With this agreement, the IFC and the MoL seek to create and form a constructive cooperation in fields related to labor and laborers.”

According to the agreement, the IFC will provide the MoL with a number of services including following up and organizing the payroll, submitting social audits for the facility explaining the companies commercial and managerial performance, and its abidance with the UAE labor laws. The IFC will also pay the salaries of laborers through installing ATM machines in labor camps and will also send mobile units equipped with ATM machines to the sites. Furthermore the company will provide the MoL with the necessary data and report any labor law violations.
On the other hand, the ministry will facilitate the services of 'Daman & Aman' clients and will provide the IFC with the necessary database to provide these services electronically. The IFC was established in 2006 and is based in Dubai. The IFC is a financing company as well as a Holding with a number of companies under its supervision.

Unskilled workers can stay for 6 years: Al Ka'abi

Unskilled foreign workers and domestic help will be allowed a maximum stay of six years in the UAE, the Minister of Labour said yesterday.

Speaking to Gulf News from Geneva, Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi said a total of 2 million unskilled workers will be considered "temporary contractual workers under an agreement with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)".

"The UAE will receive an official document from the IOM recognising the change of the workers' position from being immigrants to temporary contractual workers," Al Ka'abi said.
"This will allow the country to proceed with rules making the maximum stay of workers six years an initial stay of 3 years to be renewed only once for a similar period," he said.

Medicals for UAE-bound workers

Expat workers who wish to take up jobs in the UAE will also undergo medical tests in their countries to ensure they are free from contagious diseases, the Minister of Labour told Gulf News yesterday.
Speaking to Gulf News from Geneva, Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, Minister of Labour, said no time-frame has been fixed to implement this. It follows an agreement with the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Al Ka'abi is in Geneva to attend the 95th Conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
At present, he said, workers undergo health tests in the UAE and many who test positive for such illnesses run away posing a major threat to the country.
Al Ka'abi said GCC countries would continue to work closely with the countries the workers were travelling to, to ensure decent conditions.
"Participants in the annual International Labour Organisation conference also recognised the need to pay attention to problems faced by employers in GCC countries when recruiting overseas workers."
He said a total of two million unskilled workers would be considered "temporary contractual workers" under an agreement with the International Organisation for Migration. The UAE will receive an official document from the IOM recognising the change of the workers' position from being immigrants to temporary contractual workers, Al Ka'abi said.
"This will allow the country to proceed with rules making the maximum stay for [unskilled] workers six years an initial stay of three years to be renewed only once for a similar period."
Al Ka'abi was speaking following a meeting with Brunson McKinley, Director-General of the Geneva-based organisation.
In his speech at the 95th Conference of the ILO on Monday, Al Ka'abi said foreign workers in the six GCC countries were temporary and not immigrant workers.
"They are hired to temporarily perform specific labour or services. Once this is completed they return to their home countries in accordance with rules of the countries of origin and the destination countries," he said.