Scores of Labour inspectors checking compliance with work rules caught four companies in Dubai illegally employing a whopping 440 laborers sponsored by firms at a free zone in another emirate.
The nearly 37 inspectors seized the workers and reported the four firms to the Ministry of Labour, which said the companies would be referred to the public prosecutor for what it described as their serious violation of labour laws.
“We are taking measures to present those companies to the prosecutor for breaking labour laws,” said Issa Al Zarouni, labour inspection director.
He said the four companies are rated as big, with one of them having more than 800 workers on its payroll and that the seized workers have visas and work permission from firms at a free zone in another emirate.
“They have permission from their sponsors to work within the free zone there…working outside their zone is illegal,” he told Emirat Alyoum daily.
Zarouni said some of those companies had already been watched by the Ministry of Labour for other violations, including providing unhealthy and unsafe housing for workers and failure to give them their wages on time.
He said one firm, owned by a foreign investor, was fined Dh300,000 by Dubai’s prosecutor last year for such violations.