Monday, January 3, 2011

UAE Ministry of Labour written off Fines on unrenewed labour cards

The Ministry of Labour has written off around Dh1 billion in fines accumulated over 10 years on non-renewal of labour cards in the private sector, a top ministry official said.
Humaid Bin Deemas Al Suwaidi, Executive Director at the Labour Ministry, said it has decided to implement the Cabinet decision aimed at reducing fines accumulated on labour cards not renewed between 2000 and December 31, 2010.
Written off
The ministry has written off 80 per cent of the total amount of fines, owed by 28,500 companies, which has reached Dh1.25 billion.
He added that the ministry had decided to calculate a fine of Dh2,000 on each labour card that expired before May 31, 2005. Al Suwaidi said there are 30,000 such cards and the fines originally assessed on them is around Dh1.1 billion.
The ministry will impose a fine of Dh5,000 on each labour card expired between May 31, 2005 and December 31, 2010.With 17,000 cards having expired in this period, the ministry had assessed total fines at Dh150 million.
Al Suwaidi said that "the decision is aimed at encouraging companies in private sector to legalise their status," adding that the move integrates the new decision with the previous decision announced by the ministry to reduce the transfer fees to ensure that companies don't employ staff illegally because of high fees or fines

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