New sponsor must give same wage

Skilled workers switching to new sponsors under visa rules introduced by the UAE recently must get the same wage or their labour cards will be cancelled, the ministry of labour has said.

New sponsors who try to cut the wage of switching workers will be violating conditions set by the government to grant those workers permit to shift to another company, the misting said in new guidelines published by the Arabic language daily 'Emarat Alyoum' on Saturday.

The ministry specified three categories of skilled labour in its new guidelines, with their salaries set at Dh5,000 for the first category, Dh7,000 for the second group and Dh12,000 for the third one.

It noted those categories can shift to another company under the new visa rules provided they have completed two years with the company and that the new job they are taking up is within the same field.

“The ministry has taken precautionary measures in case new sponsors will try to get round the new rules by registering defined wages and trying to alter them later,” the report said.

“In case new sponsors give these workers lower salaries, then the ministry will cancel the workers’ labour cards.”

According to the report, those categories can also shift to other sponsors provided the vacant job can not be filled by a UAE national or citizens from other Gulf Cooperation Council states.

“These workers should also have clean records at the ministry, have their passports valid for at least six months and should not be aged below 18 years…the licence of the new sponsoring firm must also be valid and it should have no offences at the time of the application.”

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