Rules Relaxed on workers Health Ckecks in UAE

ABU DHABI // Thousands of people with communicable diseases could be granted work permits after an overhaul of residency medical law.

Tests for hepatitis B will only apply to six specified professions, the Ministry of Health said yesterday. It will scrap all mandatory testing for hepatitis C. Testing for HIV/Aids remains in place and any expatriate who tests positive will be deported, the ministry said.

Examinations for both forms of hepatitis, a blood disease, previously applied to every expatriate wanting to live and work in the Emirates. Dr Mahmoud Fikri, the ministry’s executive director of health policies, said the changes were made after consulting a broad range of medical officials.

“Members from the Dubai Health Authority, Health Authority-Abu Dhabi and the Ministry of Health were involved in the technical committee,” he said. “This is the criteria. It is the same as other Gulf countries and will apply everywhere.”

Senior officials in Abu Dhabi and Dubai have spoken openly about their desire to amend the residency medical law, particularly those articles governing TB. Dr Ali al Marzouqi, the Dubai Health Authority head of public health and safety, said two months ago that the Federal law governing deportation of TB patients was outdated.

The management of some communicable diseases has come under fire in recent years from organisations such as the United Nations, as officials expressed concern about government policies driving illnesses such as TB underground because of the threat of deportation.

The six categories of expatriates affected are nannies; housemaids; nursery and kindergarten supervisors; workers in hairdressing saloons, beauty centres and health clubs; anyone working in processing or food-control authorities; and those employed in cafes and restaurants.

There was some confusion over the issue of mandatory pregnancy tests for maids, nannies and female drivers. Dr Fikri introduced it as a new provision despite its existence in the original 2008 law.

“This will be mandatory now,” he said. “We will do the test and then it will be the decision of the sponsor about whether he wants to proceed or not.” He declined to say what would happen if a positive result came from an unmarried woman.

The amendments to Article 2 of the original 2008 Ministry of Health law makes a hepatitis B vaccination mandatory on arrival in the UAE for the six categories.

“The hepatitis B vaccine must be given for the negative cases of the new six categories' arrivals on condition that they should take three doses and provide a certificate proving the dose,” the law states.

There were 479 cases of hepatitis C diagnosed in Abu Dhabi last year, 77 per cent of which involved expatriates, figures from the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi showed. Of last year’s 145 Abu Dhabi syphilis cases, 93 were found in expats. Figures from Dubai for 2008, the most recent available, show 48 of 52 cases of syphilis, 275 of 399 cases of hepatitis C and 802 of 864 hepatitis B cases involved expatriates. Syphilis testing will also apply only to the six professions and positive results will not result in deportation.

“Treatment must be provided to all positive cases before obtaining the health certificate for residency,” the amended law reads.

The rules governing tuberculosis will also be relaxed under the new amendment. Only patients with “new, old or active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB)” will be refused residency, the law says. Previously extra-pulmonary TB and active pneumonia were also deportable. TB tests as a requirement of renewal of visas have been scrapped.

Nidal al Kabbah, the senior charge nurse at the infectious disease unit at Rashid Hospital, praised the Ministry of Health for making the changes. His unit received 134 cases of pulmonary TB and a further 15 other varieties of the disease last year, he said. It was not known how many involved expats.

“It is great that they are encouraging and supporting every human being’s right to live and work,” he said. “At the same time, they are protecting the population who are already living and working here.”

Certain diseases should remain on the list of deportable diseases because of the increased risk they posed to the general public, Mr al Kabbah said. The hepatitis B bacteria, for example, can survive on surfaces outside the body for as long as two months.

“It is very important to test certain people for hepatitis B,” he said. “Imagine if someone in a kitchen cut themselves without realising it. The virus would spread.”

UAE Annual Leave Entitlement

A reader from Dubai asks: I am an expatriate and have held a valid unlimited residents' visa as a mechanical engineer since November 2005. I would like clarification regarding leave — as stated in Article 75, chapter I1 of the UAE Labour Law. As it is mentioned, every worker shall, within each year of service, be granted a period of annual leave of no less than 30 days a year, where the workers' period of service is more than one year. How is it to be implemented, after completion of the first year of service — is there eligiblity for 30 days' annual leave. When is my second year’s annual leave due? Presently in our organisation it is after the first completion of 12 months' service.

If I avail of 30 days annual leave, my next eligibility for annual leave is due only after again completing 12 months of service, ie, the first 12 months plus one month of annual leave after completion of 12 months ie after 25 months my annual leave is due from the 26th month and so on.

My query is if the Article has specified, within each year of service ie after completion of my first year of service, am I eligible for my second annual leave on the 24th month of continuous service.

Further as our working hours are nine hours per day — 54 hours, even for management staff, is it legal as per the UAE Labour Law as it mentions it has to be 48 hours a week even though I work in a factory.

If it is 48 hours per week, the additional working hour per day amounts to more than 30 days a year ie 6 hours per week x 52 weeks excluding government declared holidays, I am availed of 30 days after completing every 12 months of service. So will it be my annual compensated accumulated leave?

As per article No 75 of the Federal Labour Law No 8 of 1980, concerning workers’ annual leave for 30 days and how to calculate this I would tell the questioner that a worker, at the beginning of his employment in the company, shall work for an entire 12 months and thus as per this article he shall be entitled to 30 days’ leave starting from the first of the 13th month.

As for the second year, the leave of such a worker shall start from the beginning of the 12th month, viz; the worker works in the second year for 11 months only and then he shall be granted annual leave. As for the question regarding the extra work hours and if it is possible to be calculated within the end-of-service gratuity, I would tell the questioner such extra work is to be compensated by being paid for such work and therefore overtime shall not be calculated within the end-of-service gratuity. As for the question on overtime in the factory, in accordance with the Labour Law, whether in terms of management or otherwise, the employer is entitled to request from the ministry that working hours are nine hours a day instead of eight hours as required by the factory. Therefore, such overtime should be paid.

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

Criteria for obtaining a health card in Dubai

In order to obtain a residency visa and labour card, all expatriates are required to undergo a medical and blood test. Employers usually arrange for all the necessary paperwork.

If you are not covered by a company or private medical insurance, it is advisable to apply for a health card which entitles residents to low cost medical treatment at public hospitals and clinics. An application form can be collected from any public hospital then submitted (typed in Arabic), along with the correct documents to your local Health Care Center. The health card is valid for one year and can be renewed online.

Documents required:

Passport copy

Covering letter from sponsor

Visa application copy

2 passport size photographs

Completed application form

Fees

Citizens (card valid for 4 years)

0-9 Years - AED 25

10-17 Years - AED 50

18 Years and Above - AED 100

Non Citizens(card valid for 1 year)

0-9 Years - AED 100

10-17 Years - AED 200

17 Years and Above - AED 300

plus AED 200/- for medical examination

UAE regulator to ban BlackBerry from October

The UAE’s telecoms regulator has announced that BlackBerry services in the country will be suspended from 11 October this year.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said that the suspension was due to the failure of ongoing attempts since 2007 to bring BlackBerry services in the country in line with local regulations.

"With no solution available and in the public interest, in order to affect resolution of this issue, as of October 11, 2010, Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry Email and Blackberry Web-browsing services will be suspended until an acceptable solution can be developed and applied," said TRA director general Mohamed Al Ghanim.

"The TRA notes that Blackberry appears to be compliant in similar regulatory environments of other countries, which makes non-compliance in the UAE both disappointing and of great concern."

Telcos Etisalat and du were informed of the TRA’s decision on Sunday. They were also instructed to ensure minimal consumer disruption in the provision of alternative services.

In a statement, the UAE’s biggest telecoms provider, Etisalat, said that it “fully understands the legal and social considerations behind the decision."

The operator also announced that it “will soon be announcing a range of alternative mobility products and services for its BlackBerry products” without providing any further detail.

“All Blackberry services fall within the UAE regulatory framework developed by the TRA since 2007, however because of Blackberry's technical configuration, some Blackberry services operate beyond the enforcement of these regulations,” said a statement issued by the TRA.

“Blackberry data is immediately exported off-shore, where it is managed by a foreign, commercial organization. Blackberry data services are currently the only data services operating in the UAE where this is the case.

“Today's decision is based on the fact that, in their current form, certain Blackberry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE.”

Dubai plans special visa to attract entrepreneurs

Dubai is considering a plan to introduce a special visa system to lure foreign entrepreneurs to the emirate, a news report here has said. The EntrePass scheme would encourage budding start-ups with high commercial value to set up in Dubai, the report said.

In return, entrepreneurs will have their visa application expedited and they will also be provided with guidance from experts at the Mohammad Bin Rashid Establishment (MBRE) for SME Development in starting their businesses, the National newspaper said. "We want Dubai to be the centre for innovative small and medium enterprises [SMEs]," Alexandar Williams, the director of strategy and policy division at MBRE, told the newspaper. He said the future of Dubai rested on nurturing selective foreign entrepreneurs with good ideas, who could use them for development and build business around it.