UAE to support workers with delayed wages

UAE lahour authorities have reassured private sector workers who do not get their salaries on time they would support them so they can regain all their rights provided they report their case on time.

The ministry of labour said workers whose wages are delayed by their employers should immediately report to the competent officials at the ministry so they will sort their problem.

“It is unacceptable that workers whose salaries are delayed stay without a job in the UAE under the excuse of not receiving their wages or entering futile negotiations with their employers who could be financially in trouble,” said Humaid Al Suwaidi, the ministry’s assistant undersecretary for labour affairs.

“These workers must immediately report to the ministry which will spare no effort in taking the necessary measures to guarantee their rights and ensure all their financial dues are settled,” he told the semi official Arabic language daily Aittihad.

Suwaidi said failure by employers to pay their employees on time constitutes a violation of labour laws, adding that this could prompt the ministry of labour to take measures to facilitate the workers’ movement to another job without having to impose a ban on them.

But he stressed workers suffering from salary delays and seek an exemption of the ban to shift to another sponsor must have spent at least two years in the first job.
“The case of these workers will then be referred to the labour court…if the sentence is in their favour, then they will be exempted from the six-month job ban and their employers will be made to pay them wages for at least two month,” he said.

“The law also protects the employer’s rights as its main objective is to organise the labour market and ensure discipline…in case a worker is proved to have absconded from his employer, then he will get a permanent ban on work in the UAE.”

During a seminar in Dubai on Wednesday, Suweidi said nearly 3.6 million expatriate workers in the private sector are included in the UAE’s wage protection system.
“The UAE is free of forced labour…all workers get their rights and most private sector institutions are now registered in the wage protection system,” he said.

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