DUBAI — The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs issued yesterday a series of decrees with regard to rewarding the companies which recruited national PROs. Also part of the decrees is the introduction of a new fee structure for transactions in which employers seek exemption from rules.
Commenting on the decrees issued by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Dr Ali bin Abdullah Al Kaabi, Humaid bin Dimas, Assistant Under-Secretary for Labour Affairs, said that the decree to introduce new fees was to prevent administrative corruption.
Should a company need exemption from rules, it is welcome to do so against the payment of certain fees. The payment of fees ensures that the application of exemption is processed immediately at the relevant counter without the need to reach the relevant counter through junior employees.1
"The advantage of this is that employers now will not have to plead to ministry employees to forward their papers and help them get approval from senior officials, resulting in corruption," he noted.
All the new decrees will be enforced on February 11, 2006.
Rewarding
Decree No 92 allowed companies to apply to the ministry for individual work permits in replacement of cancelled workers. Transactions will be directly processed at the service counter without the need to be checked and studied by the work permit committees. However, this is only for companies that have a hundred workers and more, maintained the required emiratisation percentage, complied with the rules including regular payment of salaries in addition to regular submission of payroll documents to the ministry and did not have expired labour cards or work permits. This decree was taken to reward companies that have appointed national PROs, noted Humaid bin Dimas.
Work permit extension
Ministerial decree No. 87 allowed employers, who wish to extend the validity of the approved work permit over the sixty days period of validity, to get the extension against the payment of Dh500 per worker. This privilege was permitted only within 60 days from the expiry date of the work permit.
The ministry offers a renewed 10 days extension period from the approval's expiry date for a maximum of 6 renewals. The Dh500 fees per worker is payable at each renewal. A work permit application will be cancelled if the permit has expired and the application was not renewed. In this case the applicant is exempted from paying the fees.
And Dh500 should be paid as cancellation charges if the employer failed to use an approved work permit application. This fee is due if a period of six months lapsed form the approval's expiry date.
No fees will be required in case of cancelling an unused work permit and if the employer applied for cancelling it before the lapse of six months from its expiry date.
Sponsorship transfer extension
Decree No 86 introduced Dh500 fee for extending the approval of sponsorship transfer transaction after the lapse of the 60 days period of the preliminary approval. Employers can extend the approval for a maximum of three times and the duration of each extension is 10 days. The Dh 500 fee is payable for each extension. Procedures for sponsorship transfer are carried out after the payment of the specified fees.
Reissuance of labour card
Decree No 88 introduced a Dh200 fee for reissuing labour cards in two specific cases:
1- Re-employing a worker whose labour card was cancelled and yet his sponsorship was not processed for cancellation provided his re-employment was agreed upon before the lapse of one month from the date of the labour card cancellation.
2- Should the employer failed to collect a labour card issued by the Ministry.