Labour ministry, DNRD plan to upgrade e-link

DUBAI - The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MLSA) and the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) are seeking to further streamline their electronic link by processing more joint transactions on the computer at either department, according to a senior official at the MLSA.

By Sanaa Maadad

Published: Sat 19 Apr 2003, 11:58 AM

Last updated: Tue 28 Nov 2023, 4:05 PM

Both the ministry and the department had established some time back an electronic link enabling the ministry at present to send the employment visa approval to the DNRD rather than handing them over to the applicants who used to take them in person and submit them to the DNRD for approval of the visa. The process had given some companies an opportunity to temper with the approvals which used to be issued on paper by adding names of expatriate employees for whom no applications were filed in the first place.

Having proved successful and efficient in eliminating many problems and delays in the past, the e-link which was launched on experimental basis will soon be expanded to cover the cancellation of work permits and labour cards electronically either at the MLSA or at the DNRD, Dr Khalid Al Khazraji, the ministry's Under-Secretary for Labour Affairs, disclosed.

In an interview with the Labour and Social Affairs Magazine, published in its latest issue, Dr Khazraji said that the current system requires that establishment cancel the labour cards at the ministry and then go to the DNRD to cancel the employment visa as well. "With the launch of the electronic cancellation, the establishment which want to cancel an employee's labour card and employment visas can approach either the MLSA or the DNRD," he said.

The Under-Secretary disclosed that the e-services to be provided by the link between both departments will also cover the attestation of labour contracts.

"The labour contracts will be sent directly to the DNRD via the system which will curb the practices of some companies to manipulate the contracts and change them, thus the DNRD and the ministry will have identical copies of the labour contract of each and every employee."

Dr Khazraji however pointed to some problems or difficulties in the implementation of the e-link between the ministry and the DNRD, but stressed that upon the completion of the e-link and after overcoming all the problems faced at whenever any new system is introduced, the ministry will generalise the experience and establish similar electronic links with all the other naturalisation and residency departments throughout the country.

In this context, he said that the ministry had achieved in the last two years a leap in the quality of its services with the automation of many of its procedures and with the introduction of various facilities that would eventually turn the ministry into a paperless establishment.