Generate/ERILOGO1.gif About ERI Disclaimer

United Arab Emirates - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Abu Dhabi

 

CLIMATE

Desert climate; however, cooler in the eastern mountains.

 

LANGUAGES

Arabic (official), Persian, English, Hindi, and Urdu.

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

All emirates have secular and Islamic law for civil, criminal, and high courts.

A federal court system was introduced in 1971. All emirates except Dubayy (Dubai) and Ra's al Khaymah have joined the federal system.

 

CURRENCY

Emirati Dirham (1 USD = 3.67400 AED as of June 1, 2002).

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U.S. Embassy at Abu Dhabi

Al-Sudan Street

P.O. Box 4009

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Telephone: [971] (2) 443-6691

Fax: [971] (2) 443-5441

http://www.usembabu.gov.ae/

 

Embassy of the United Arab Emirates at Washington D.C.

1255 22nd Street N.W., Suite 700

Washington D.C. 20037

Telephone: (202) 243-2400

Fax: (202) 243-2432

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - HOLIDAYS

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - LEAVE

Annual Leave: Minimum of 24 days per year of annual leave.

 

Maternity Leave: 6 months – 2 months with full pay, 2 additional months of nursing leave with half salary, and the possibility of 2 more months without salary (paid by employer).

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - MINIMUM AGE

Labor regulations prohibit employment of persons under the age of 15 and have special provisions for employing those 15 to 18 years of age. The Government does not issue visas for foreign workers under the age of 16 years. With the exception of camel jockeys, child labor is not tolerated.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, United Arab Emirates – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

There is no legislated or administrative minimum wage; rather, supply and demand determines compensation. Approximately 98 percent of the private sector workforce consist of foreigners.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, United Arab Emirates – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

The law prohibits workers the right to form or join unions. There are no unions. The law prohibits strikes. During the year, there were several unprecedented sit-ins by workers in front of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs offices in Dubai to protest nonpayment of wages. Foreign workers, who make up more than 98 percent of the Emirates' private sector workforce, risk deportation if they attempt to organize unions or to strike.

 

Since 1995 the UAE has been suspended from the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation insurance programs because of the Government's lack of compliance with internationally recognized worker rights standards.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

The law does not grant workers the right to engage in collective bargaining, and it is not practiced. However, some professional associations are granted greater freedom to raise work-related concerns, to lobby the Government for redress, or to file a grievance with the Government. Workers in the industrial and service sectors normally are employed under contracts that are subject to review by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The Ministry of Interior's Naturalization and Residency Administration is responsible for reviewing the contracts of foreign domestic employees as part of residency permit processing. The purpose of the review is to ensure that the pay satisfies the employee's basic needs and secures a means of living. For the resolution of work-related disputes, workers must rely on conciliation committees organized by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs or on special labor courts.

 

Labor laws do not cover government employees, domestic servants, and agricultural workers. The latter two groups face considerable difficulty in obtaining assistance to resolve disputes with employers. While any worker may seek redress through the courts, this process places a heavy financial burden on those earning lower incomes.

 

Businesses operating in the country's free trade zones are exempt from compliance with some federal laws, such as commercial agency laws; however, they are not exempt from compliance with federal labor laws.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

Forced or compulsory labor is illegal. However, some employment agents bring foreign workers to the country under conditions approaching indenture. There are credible reports that some women, who are brought to the country for service sector employment, later are forced into prostitution (see Section 6.f.). The Government prohibits forced and bonded child labor and generally enforces this prohibition effectively. However, the use of small children as camel jockeys is a problem. There continue to be credible reports of hundreds of underage boys from South Asia, mainly between 4 and 10 years of age, being used as camel jockeys (see Sections 6.d. and 6.f.).

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

Labor regulations prohibit employment of persons under the age of 15 and have special provisions for employing those 15 to 18 years of age. The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is responsible for enforcing the regulations. Other regulations permit employers to employ only adult foreign workers. The Government does not issue visas for foreign workers under the age of 16 years. With the exception of camel jockeys, child labor is not tolerated.

 

There continue to be credible reports that hundreds of underage boys from South Asia, mainly between 4 and 10 years of age, continue to be used as camel jockeys (see Sections 6.d. and 6.f.). Since 1993 the Government has prohibited the use of children under the age of 15 as camel jockeys and the use of jockeys who do not weigh more than 99 pounds. However, credible sources report that almost all camel jockeys are children under the minimum employment age. Relevant laws in some cases are enforced against criminal trafficking rings, but not against those who own racing camels and employ the children, because such owners come from powerful local families that are in effect above the law. According to credible sources, there were at least 25 cases during the year of underage camel jockeys who were repatriated to their countries of origin, mainly Pakistan and Bangladesh.

 

In April a 7-year-old Bangladeshi boy working as a camel jockey was injured during a camel race in Dubai. After being repatriated to Bangladesh, the boy died from kidney damage resulting from those injuries. In September 2000, the Abu Dhabi police took into protective custody and repatriated a 10-year-old Pakistani boy who allegedly had been kidnaped from his village in Pakistan and brought to the country to work as a jockey in camel races. Police reportedly are investigating several such cases; however, by year's end; no charges against those who employed the boys had been filed.

 

The Government prohibits forced and bonded child labor and generally enforces this prohibition effectively (see Section 6.c.).

 

The Government ratified ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor on June 28.

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

Approximately 98 percent of the private sector workforce consist of foreigners. There are a considerable number of skilled foreign nationals in the country who are employed under favorable working conditions. However, it also is a destination for a large number of unskilled workers, including up to 250,000 domestic servants, most of them women from South and East Asia, and an even larger number of unskilled male workers, mostly from South Asia. These unskilled laborers actively compete for jobs in the country and other Gulf countries, and many are willing to work under poor conditions because salaries are significantly higher than in their home countries.

 

The standard workday is 8 hours per day; the standard workweek is 6 days per week; however, these standards are not enforced strictly. Certain types of workers, notably domestic servants, may be obliged to work longer than the mandated standard. The law also provides for a minimum of 24 days per year of annual leave plus 10 national and religious holidays. In addition manual workers are not required to work outdoors when the temperature exceeds 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

There is no legislated or administrative minimum wage; rather, supply and demand determines compensation. Compensation depends on occupation and employer and ranges from $109 (400 dirhams) per month) for domestic or agricultural workers working for local individual employers to $164 (600 dirhams per month) for construction workers working for companies to much higher salaries for highly skilled employees working for multinational companies. Compensation packages generally provide housing or housing allowances.

 

The Government reportedly is concerned about the low standard of living of some foreign workers and was engaged during the year in discussions to implement a minimum wage range. The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry reviews labor contracts and does not approve any contract that stipulates a clearly unacceptable wage (see Section 6.b.).

 

Most foreign workers receive either employer-provided housing or housing allowances, medical care, and homeward passage from their employers. Most foreign workers do not earn the monthly minimum salary of $1,090 (3,924 dirhams) or $817 (2,941 dirhams), when a housing allowance is provided in addition to the salary required to obtain residency permits for their families.

 

There are frequent local newspaper reports regarding the non-payment of wages to foreign workers. In March the local press reported that 61 laborers from India and Bangladesh had filed a case with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs claiming that their employer had not paid them for 11 months. In June 500 South Asian employees of a large Dubai construction company gathered in front of the Labor Ministry in Dubai to protest nonpayment of wages for a period of 3 months. Also in June, the Abu Dhabi Department of Labor reportedly resolved 3 separate labor disputes involving nonpayment of wages to teachers in a private school, mistreatment of 25 construction company employees, and nonpayment of wages for 2 months to 150 workers at an industrial company.

 

In an attempt to safeguard workers' rights, the Government in May introduced a new law requiring some employers to deposit monetary guarantees with third-party banks. The purpose of the guarantee was to decrease the growing number of cases in which employees work, sometimes for months, without wages. The amount of the guarantee increases according to the number of workers employed by the depositor. In theory the greater the number of workers employed by a company, the more money will be deposited and the greater the likelihood that workers will be paid in a timely manner. However, the law does not protect all workers. The law exempts from this requirement those companies in which the Government owns a share, banks, insurance firms, petroleum firms, certain hotels, and most large companies fully owned and managed by nationals. However, companies in certain sectors, even if fully owned and managed by citizens, must deposit bank guarantees.

 

Resident and nonresident foreign nationals are restricted significantly in changing employment. Foreign nationals in specific occupations, primarily professional, may not change employers without first leaving the country for 6 months. Some foreign nationals involved in disputes with employers, particularly in cases in which the employee has signed a contract containing a clause not to compete, may be blacklisted by the employer with immigration authorities, effectively preventing their return for a specified period of time. Employers also have the option to petition to ban from the work force for 6-months any foreign employee who leaves his job without fulfilling the terms of his contract (see Section 2.d.).

 

The Government is attempting to decrease the incidence of abuse by employers of laws regarding the sponsorship of foreign national employees. In March the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor issued an order granting workers sponsored by closed or bankrupt companies a 6 month grace period in which to transfer their sponsorship to another company. In December 2000, the Government announced that regulations governing applications for work permits would be rigorously enforced. Under the regulations, a company that has one or more employees whose work permit has expired and not been renewed during the 60-day grace period will be barred from employing new staff. However, the rule is enforced unevenly.

 

The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, municipalities, and civil defense units enforce health and safety standards, and the Government requires every large industrial concern to employ a certified occupational safety officer. However, health and safety standards are not observed uniformly. Press reports in June noted a recently released report of a study conducted by the Ministry of Labor that stated that many industrial establishments fail to observe health and safety regulations, and more than half provide substandard housing and unclean environments, with sometimes as many as 15 workers living in a single room.

 

Workers' jobs are not protected if they remove themselves from what they consider to be unsafe working conditions. However, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs may require employers to reinstate workers who were dismissed for not performing unsafe work. Injured workers are entitled to fair compensation, and all workers have the right to lodge grievances with Ministry officials, who make an effort to investigate all complaints. However, the Ministry is understaffed and underfunded; complaints and compensation claims are backlogged. Rulings on complaints may be appealed within the Ministry and ultimately to the courts. However, many workers choose not to protest for fear of reprisals or deportation.

 

Abuse of domestic servants, particularly women, by their employers is prevalent. Allegations include excessive work hours, nonpayment of wages, and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. In February a housemaid attempted to commit suicide because of abuse received from her employer of about 2 months, including beatings and confinement to a room for 8 days without proper food or bathroom facilities. In March a housemaid was allegedly raped by her employer of about a month.

 

Domestic servants and agricultural workers are not covered by labor laws and thus face considerable difficulty in obtaining assistance to resolve disputes with employers. Sponsorship and residency laws do not permit most foreign national employees to change employers, and employers normally hold their employees' passports. Because the law does not prohibit this practice, servants do not have the recourse of leaving their employment and returning to their home country or finding another job.

 

The Emirate of Dubai has taken greater measures than the other emirates in improving working conditions. In April the Emirate of Dubai began enforcing an order banning transport in or through the Emirate of laborers in pick-up trucks and truck trailers that are not designed to transport persons and lack safety features. The measure is aimed at improving worker and traffic safety by requiring employers to transport employees in buses. In 2000 accidents involving such trucks resulted in the deaths of 32 workers and injuries to 340 workers. Twenty-one workers were injured in a single accident in January.

 

Truck owners who transport workers in violation of the order are subject to fines of $35 (100 dirhams) and the seizure of their truck for at least a week. Repeat violators will be subject to increased fines and truck seizure periods. Police seized about 351 trucks during the first 2 weeks after the law went into effect.

 

In May the Emirate of Dubai also announced a plan to increase inspections of construction worksites and factories to ensure that safety regulations are being implemented throughout the Emirate. This measure followed a series of recent accidents at construction sites throughout the country. For example, three workers in Dubai died after a concrete wall fell on them while they were eating breakfast. In Sharjah three workers died from toxic gas inhalation while they were cleaning a sewer. A worker in Sharjah died by falling from the 15th floor of a building. A farm worker in Al-Ain died after being buried alive in sand while digging a well. Five workers were injured and one died in Abu Dhabi after being trapped in sand for 2 hours when a trench collapsed at a construction site. In Ajman a worker died after falling into a well that was under construction. Two workers in Abu Dhabi died after falling from separate high rise buildings that were under construction. A worker in Dubai was crushed to death by a road-rolling machine.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

The law does not prohibit specifically trafficking in persons, although child smuggling, prostitution, and pornography are crimes. And trafficking in women and children is a problem.

 

Trafficking in persons involves young boys used as camel jockeys, and women.

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The standard workday is 8 hours per day; the standard workweek is 6 days per week. Certain types of workers, notably domestic servants, may be obliged to work longer than the mandated standard. The law also provides for a minimum of 24 days per year of annual leave plus 10 national and religious holidays. In addition manual workers are not required to work outdoors when the temperature exceeds 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, United Arab Emirates – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)