Sick to work? labour card may be cancelled

An employee’s labour card may be cancelled because of a medical ailment or underlying disability that makes them unfit to resume work, according to the UAE’s Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratisation.

An employee who becomes infected with a disease that stands in the way of his work may have his labour card cancelled, says the UAE ministry.

This is a service provided to any establishment to cancel the labour card of a worker because of sickness or disease.

However, there are set conditions that need to be followed for cancelling the card under this category.

•  A sick cancellation medical letter from a hospital, stamped by the Ministry of Health, is required to avail of this service.

•  Prior to cancelling the labour card, the worker shall first cancel her/his visa at General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs or its affiliated centres in the country. They should also have established an electronic signature card.

The application to cancel the card should be printed and required documents shall be scanned at service centres throughout the establishments participating in the ministry’s e-forms programme.

The application is then transferred electronically to the ministry database for verification and to make sure all required conditions are met with the needed documents.

Sick leaves and what the law says

You need to notify the employer if you fall sick. Article 82 of the UAE Labour Law states that should the worker sustain an illness not caused by an occupational injury, he must notify the employer within two days at most.

The employer then shall take the necessary procedures to get a medical examination done in order to verify the stated illness.

Furthermore, Article 83 (as amended by Federal Law no. 12 dated 29/10/1986) states a full time employee is entitled to a sick leave not exceeding 90 consecutive or non-consecutive days for every year of service.

After the said period, Article 85 permits the employer to terminate the service of the worker if s/he exhausts the sick leaves and is not able to report back to work.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.