The law expected to be issued soon will adhere to international standards pertaining to health, accommodation, salary and other benefits.
This was stated by Humaid bin Deemas, Assistant Under-Secretary, Ministry of Labour, at a symposium organised by the Department of Human Rights of the Dubai Police to mark International Labour Day on Thursday.
The participants of the symposium warned individuals and groups against exploiting workers.
Ibtisam Al Kutbi, a lecturer at the faculty of political science at the UAE University, said that expatriate labour in the UAE was exceptionally large and culturally diverse, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the private sector labour force.
According to the Labour Ministry’s records, a total of 3,113,000 foreign workers are employed by approximately 260,000 establishments.
She said that meeting the challenges presented by such numbers takes time, and needs fiscal and management resources working in 260 companies.
She said that this UAE needs administrative and security financial, resources to meet the challenges of having large number of workers.
She said that the UAE was facing pressures to issue legislations to allow formation of trade unions and review its constitution and labour laws.
She said trade unions might pose challenges to security.
The UAE government should amend the labour laws to ensure more protection and social security to workers, she said.
Humaid bin Deemas, in his address, said that the UAE was keen to carry out all its international labour obligations transparently and objectively. He said that the good working environment offered here had attracted workers from 202 countries.
He said that the UAE welcomes criticism and will take positive steps to enforce labour laws and fully protect the rights of workers in the country,
He said that as per instructions of the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the UAE is committed to improve its existing legal framework and protect the workers’ rights.
The Ministry of Labour has taken many steps in this regard recently increasing the number of labour inspectors to 2,000 and conducted 120,000 inspection visits to labour accommodation .
The officials had inspected 1900 work sites and had imposed fines amounting to Dh9 million on 816 persons who were found violating the afternoon work ban during the summer months last year.
The ministry has revamped its procedures to settle labour disputes.
He said the ministry had started punishing employers for delaying or not paying salaries to the workers.
The ministry has now made it mandatory upon companies employing more than 50 workers to pay salaries through banks and submit bank statements.
About 545 institutions found guilty of not paying of wages on time had their activities frozen or suspended.
