Six month labour ban in UAE applies to working women sponsored by family members

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.

Pakistani passport validity extended from five to 10 years

 Dubai: Pakistani expatriates in the UAE are rejoiced over their government’s decision to extend the validity period of their passports from five to 10 years.

According to new rule, the passports issued after September 15 will be valid for 10 years. Applications will also have the choice to get a bigger 100-page passport.

“It will be a great relief as we don’t have to run to our diplomatic missions to renew passports every now and then and stand in queues for hours,” said Haji Naveed Younus, a Pakistani businessman living in the UAE for the last 35 years. He said the government should also improve facilities at the missions which are unable to cope with heavy rush of people applying for passports and ID cards.“

Mohammad Shahid Bhatti, a businessman in Dubai, also appreciated the new move and urged the government that passport issuance time should also be reduced as currently it takes more than three to four weeks to get a passport. “Passports should be delivered within a week,” he said.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced extension in the validity of passports from five to 10 years.

However, Pakistani mission in the UAE has not so far received any intimation in this regard. “We are waiting for the instructions from the government regarding the new passport policy,” Tariq Iqbal Somoro, Pakistani Consul General in Dubai, told Gulf News. He said the consulate would inform the community about the procedure and revised fee structure if any accordingly.

Malik has also launched an Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) at Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore. The IBMS replaced the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES) and is meant to enhance security procedure at the airports in Pakistan.

The IBMS software allows features missing in PISCES such as the integration of biometric data and giving access to visa-issuing authorities. IBMS, initially launched in 2001, is currently operational at Benazir Bhutto International Airport Islamabad, Jinnah International Airport Karachi, Bacha Khan International Airport Peshawar and Torkham Land Route.

Malik said that the system had been developed with the cooperation of Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) through which the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) would have an access to NADRA records.

Malik said that IBMS had been designed according to country’s immigration laws and it would help prevent illegal entry, use of counterfeit documents, human smuggling and other frauds.

The minister added that IBMS had been equipped with technologies such as advance fingerprint matching, specialised handling of different categories of travellers and scalability for integration with other national databases.

No Bangladesh visa ban in UAE

Abu Dhabi: This comes after the Bangladeshi Embassy in Abu Dhabi received complaints from its nationals they have not been granted new visas in the UAE.In some cases, they said, even the applications for visit visas and temporary work permits were rejected.
Typing centres across the country also reported problems.

Major General Nasser Al Awadi Al Menhali, Assistant Undersecretary for Naturalisation and Residency, and Ports Affairs at the Ministry of Interior, said there was no ban.He said visas are regularly issued to all nationalities subject to the demand for workforce in the market.
And he explained there are certain restrictions on group visas to skilled and unskilled labourers to ensure their quality and competence irrespective of their nationality.He added: “If a company applies for visa for a large group of skilled and unskilled workers whose qualifications and competence are not satisfactory, that application may not be successful.

“Because if better qualified and competitive workers [who may be from some other nations] are available in the market, the UAE wants the employer to recruit such workers,” he explained.Al Menhali clarified that in such cases the qualification and competence of the workers are considered irrespective of their nationality.

However he revealed that there are certain measures to strike a demographic balance among the three largest communities of workers in the UAE Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

“We would like to give equal opportunities to these three nationalities who constitute majority of the workforce in the country and that factor is also considered while issuing the work visa.”The official made it clear that such type of restrictions are not applicable to visa for professionals such as managers, engineers, doctors etc. “We issue visa for such categories of people from all nationalities without any restrictions.”

Typing centres, which submit visa applications online on behalf of the applicants, said they started receiving rejections to new residence visa applications of Bangladeshi nationals in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah about two weeks ago and in Dubai since last week.

The number of labourers coming from India has been going down drastically thanks to the increasing opportunities in India.Bangladeshis have been filling that vacuum, they said.

More than 700,000 (seven hundred thousand) Bangladeshis constitute the third largest expatriate community in the UAE.

Six-month ban

A reader from Dubai asks: I am confused about changing my job from the present company. I will complete two and a half years by the end of this month [unlimited contract]. If I get a new job, is the six-month ban applicable on me even after getting an appointment letter from the new employer? What is the fee I'll have to pay to lift my ban? After giving my one month notice, for how many months can the company retain my services? They are saying that they will cancel my visa after getting a substitute.

In case of resignation and termination of the work by the questioner, the Ministry of Labour will automatically impose a six month ban and the appointment letter with the new employer will not be considered before the Ministry of Labour, unless the questioner obtains a No Objection Certificate from the present sponsor for transfer of the sponsorship, as well as after paying the said ministry fees, which may be about Dh5,000.

As for the duration in which the company retains the questioner; after giving the one month notice of resignation, the questioner's relationship with the employer expires by the end of the notice period, and the company has no right to ask the questioner to continue working after such a duration, unless the employee agrees to increase the duration of notice, as per article 118 of UAE Labour Law.

The questioner is not responsible for the substitute that would replace him at work, but we advise the questioner to cooperate with the company in this regard, to enable him to obtain the No Objection Certificate to transfer the sponsorship in return for such cooperation.

Questions answered by Advocate Mohammad Ebrahim Al Shaiba of Al Bahar Advocates and Legal Consultants

The rights of an employee regarding emergency leave as per the UAE Labour Law

I have been working in a company for more than two years. Six months back, I had an emergency leave for 20 days. My father was sick and I went to see him. Now I’m applying for annual leave for 30 days and my company refuses to grant my request and they are allowing me to go for 10 days only. According to their explanation I can’t take annual vacation for more than 10 days because I just had an emergency leave for 20 days and that leave was deducted from my annual leave. I want to know what the rights of the employee are regarding emergency leave as per the Labour Law. Please advice.

I would like to clarify to the questioner that as per the Federal Labour Law no. 8 for 1980, there is no emergency leave and the same is subject to the consent of the employer as well as the system applicable in the company. Besides, the employer is not obliged by law to grant such leaves.

- Questions answered by Advocate Mohammad Ebrahim Al Shaiba of Al Shaiba Advocates and Legal Consultants