Emiratis call for private sector job monitoring

UAE nationals working in the private sector have called for a close monitoring of their progress at the workplace.

Some of them complained about administrative abuse, saying nationals are denied promotion and salary hike on par with those of expatriates despite their education and dedication to work, reported 'Emarat Al Youm'.

However, officials said though there were individual cases, it cannot be generalised and that there need to be more awareness among nationals about the requirements of the private sector job market.

HM, an UAE national, said she has been earning the same salary since joining the company in 2005 and has not been promoted despite obtaining a high school diploma in 2006 and a Bachelor's degree in 2009.

AM, who has been working for a bank in Abu Dhabi for the past three years, said she was suffering because of 'administrative arbitrariness'. She complained of drawing a lower salary compared to her colleagues as well as inflexible work hours. "I do not know where to present my case. Authorities should monitor the situation of nationals working in the private sector," she adds.

Fadha Lootah, Director-General of the National Human Resources and Development Authority (Tanmia), said: "Tanmia cannot supervise or follow UAE employees at their workplaces. Tanmia's role is based on recruiting them in coordination with private sector institutions, and keeping in touch with them for a specific time period extending up to three months."

Lootah called for citizens to understand and accept the terms of the promotion in their jobs. She asked them to compare themselves with expatriates who have degrees, or who have experience in the field of work, enabling them to obtain the best financial privileges.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies, Jamal Al Jasmi, said: "There has been some cases of administrative abuse faced by some  nationals working in the private sector, but it cannot be generalised. The percentage of those affected is just about 30 per cent of the total workers in the private sector. And all were individual cases."

However, he added, that there have been cases of Emiratis deliberatly breaking rules of the organisation when their demands are not met.

AM said appraisals of Abu Dhabi employees are done by staff at the headquarters, based in Dubai without consulting the concerned employees. When she raised the matter with the Human Resources Department of the bank, she was called for an appraisal. "But I was dropped from second level to the fourth level because my English language skills have not improved since my joining the bank," she added.

"My English language skills commensurate with the required duty I need to perform. In fact, the very next day after the evaluation the management handed some documents in Arabic that needed to be translated into English," AM added.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the bank said: "We are an international bank and have about 2,200 employees representing 70 nationalities across various branches. And we treat all them equally. The bank takes the staff complaints very seriously. It orders an investigation either through an internal or an external channel. And staff are encouraged to aapproach senior management with their problems."

The spokesperson said: "More than 42 per cent of the bank's employees are UAE citizens.  The complaint is an individual one and cannot be generalised."

Lootah said: "The department did not receive any complaints regarding the ill-treatment of UAE citizens, and preference for expatriates in the labour market."

Meanwhile, Issa Al Mulla, Executive Director of the programme of development of national cadres affliated to the Knowledge and Human Development Authority of Dubai, said the problem was not in finding jobs for nationals but helping them continue in the job. Some nationals cannot develop themselves professionally. And salaries for entry-level employees in private sector are lower when compared to that in the government sector.

Al Mulla said the authority had received compalints from nationls who resigned from their jobs citing ill-treatment at workplace.

Meanwhile, at a Tanmia meeting, Minister of Labour, Saqr Ghobash, called for objective indicators to measure the performance of the Authority through a systematic follow-up of numbers of citizens joining the labour market.
 

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