Dubai: A six-month ban imposed
by the Ministry of Labour on people who fail to complete the period of
employment stipulated under labour rules also applies to working women
sponsored by their family members. An official from the ministry said women
seeking to change their jobs or leave work before completing the contractual
obligation of two years with their employer would automatically attract the
ban.
The official who did not wish
to be named said the ban will take effect the moment a woman under the sponsorship
of her husband or father cancels her labour card.
The official was commenting on
the case of an Algerian woman identified as Hasnaa Talbi who was slapped with a
six-month ban after resigning from work despite being on the sponsorship of her
Tunisian husband Radawan.
Hasnaa, who worked for around
two months at a jewellery store in Dubai, was shocked that she had been handed
down a six-month labour ban by the ministry despite the fact that she had been
working for just two months. “This ban is an issue for me because I was looking
to move to a new employer. Most employers will not wait for six months while
the ban period elapses,” she said.
The aggrieved woman said she
had lodged a complaint at the Ministry of Labour but it took the ministry almost
six months to respond forcing her to eventually drop the complaint.
Officials had previously
stated that women who take up employment while remaining under the sponsorship
of a male relative are not affected by a work ban. The ministry has now come
round to the view that in cases where a wife or daughter decides to change jobs
or to leave work without completing two years of employment, she will be
automatically banned by the Ministry of Labour for six months.
“Bans are imposed on all
expatriate employees working in private sector when they want to move from one
employer to another if they left employer without having completed a minimum of
two years’ service,” the official said.
He said the mandatory
six-month labour ban applies to both men and women even if individuals are
sponsored by family members and is calculated from the date an employee’s
labour card is cancelled at the ministry of Labour. “This is an administrative
ban, meaning that a block is inserted into the ministry’s computer system
preventing an application for labour approval being processed against banned
person’s name and passport number,” he said.
The ban cannot be lifted by
paying a fine either. “The ban is mandatory under law, this means it is
implemented automatically unless the Ministry of Labour is instructed
otherwise,” the official said.
