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MLSA gives breather for some sacked expat staff

Khaleej Times had reported in March this year the decision taken by the ministry not to renew the labour contracts of 27 expat ministerial staff in labour offices across the country including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah. They were, however, given a four-month grace period, which ended on July 30.

The ministry reviewed the situation and decided to retain some of them, including four in the Abu Dhabi office, following backlog in employment of qualified and trained nationals to replace the sacked expats, ministry sources told Khaleej Times yesterday. Most of the expats retained occupy senior level administrative positions in the ministry.

"The ministry decided to retain some of the staff whose services had been terminated for the time being, since their services are needed following shortage of staff in the absence of trained nationals being available. Efforts are, however, underway to recruit nationals capable of taking over the positions that would fall vacant subsequently," the source said.

Humaid bin Demas, Assistant Under-Secretary at the ministry in Dubai and Northern Emirates, had earlier stated that the ministry was planning to replace technical expat staff working for the Social Sector with nationals after availing of their expertise in training national cadres.

According to senior labour officials, the decision to terminate the services was taken in line with Cabinet Decree No 406 stipulating that the ministry should abide by a certain quota of emiratisation of posts to ensure employment of more national cadres in government departments and institutions. Incidentally, MLSA has achieved the highest levels of emiratisation with an estimated 90 per cent of the staff working in the ministry being nationals.

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