UAE rule in the offing to protect foreign workers

Our UAE Correspondent

The UAE Cabinet has approved a new draft law to protect the rights of domestic workers and their employers.

“We have approved a new draft law for the domestic workers in the UAE. The new law shall protect the rights of both workers and employers,” said Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

“Our Islamic values always encourage us to preserve the rights of the workers and to treat them well, and the law is emphasising this,” read a Twitter post by Shaikh Mohammed.

Under the law, sections will be set up in the residency departments across the country to look into and sort out disputes that arise between domestic workers and their employers, Major General Nasser Al Awadi Al Menhali, Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, Assistant Under-Secretary for Naturalisation, Residency and Ports, told Dubai newspaper Gulf News.

“The law is meant to protect the rights and obligations of both sides, so as to guarantee their interests and rights,” Major General Al Menhali said, but gave no further details.

The bill was drafted by a team of representatives from the ministries of interior, labour and justice.
It needs to be passed by the Federal National Council and signed into law by President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The law aligns the UAE’s rules with the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 189 and Recommendation 201 on decent work for domestic workers, which was ratified by the UAE last year. The convention provides for clearly defined conditions of employment before work begins, including payment of recruitment agency fees by employers and not deducted from staff’s wages, salary payment in cash at least once a month and at least one weekly day off.

The convention also provides that domestic help receives a written contract of employment before starting work.