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UAE to take part in GCC workshop on labour unions

ABU DHABI — A delegation of the Ministry of Labour (MoL) will meet with delegations from the ministries of labour in the GCC countries at a workshop in Kuwait in January to discuss the issue of forming workers' unions, Khaleej Times has learnt.

Sources at the MoL told this reporter on Sunday that the Executive Bureau at the ministry has received an invitation to attend the workshop to discuss the issue and the possibility of and challenges in setting up such unions in the GCC countries.

The workshop would be held in the first week of January in the capital of Kuwait.

The discussions would also touch topics like the benefits the labour unions could bring in including their role in educating the workers about their rights and the right way to complain according to the labour laws of the GCC countries.

The workshop comes after a series of meetings the GCC ministers of labour had in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Doha in Qatar to discuss the labour laws and the status of the labourers as they work on a temporary contractual basis.

Recent MoL statistics showed that the UAE has almost three million workers, of whom 85 per cent are working for the contracting and construction companies.

The sources affirmed that the MoL always work on protecting the rights of the workers and the officials try to ensure that they are provided with a decent work environment at the work sites.

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