DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates yesterday started a service called My Salary as part of efforts to ensure that employers deliver workers’ wages on time.
The new service, launched by the Ministry of Labor, will spotlight low-income workers, such as those working in construction where there are regular complaints of salaries being withheld or underpaid. Records say that around 500,000 laborers already receive their salary by bank transfer, but the ministry wants to include every worker in the system and to keep track of late or nonpayment of salaries.
“The My Salary service is a message to workers on their great day that they are our partners in national development,” Humaid bin Deemas, director-general of the Labor Ministry, said at a press conference in Abu Dhabi yesterday as part of celebrations of International Labor Day (May 1).
The service, he added, allows the worker to report any delay in receiving their salary or deduction from his salary. The worker can keep in touch around the clock with the ministry through its website or the free hotline (from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily except Fridays), he explained.
“Our call center can accept complaints in 12 languages. Then it will be forwarded to a labor inspector at the salary protection office. The inspector will visit the company and take necessary action without revealing the identity of the complainant,” Bin Deemas explained.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, chief of Dubai police, yesterday said that a decent housing complex would be set up to accommodate foreign workers involved in cases relating to labor and residency laws.
A national level committee for labor crises management that brought together representatives of the Ministry of Labor and municipalities of all emirates made the decision.
The decision was made as per the directives of the Minister of Interior Lt. Gen. Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, state news agency WAM said.
Tamim who chaired the meeting said the complex will continue to give those workers access to all decent services and amenities of dignified life, including medical care and food, until all issues and disputes with their sponsors are settled in accordance with the provisions of the labor law.
The committee discussed the problems of nonpayment of overtime wages, deduction of workers’ sick leaves and weekend offs from their annual leaves as well as the denial of annual leave.
Tamim discussed the need to conduct inspection campaigns to enforce the labor laws, punish violators and impose fines on owners of accommodation units that do not comply with safety and cleanness standards.
On Monday, Labor Minister Saqr Ghobash announced that his ministry would introduce new rules that would increase the legal protection of foreign workers, as well as upgrading their living standards.
Among the new measures presented were mechanisms to ensure payment of salaries, protect workers’ rights and improve their standard of living.
Ghobash said that the Cabinet may pass two laws in the near future to help expatriate workers: the first will allow workers who lose their jobs to stay in the country for up to six months, and the second gives laid-off workers a longer grace period before their visas expire.
While the first law could be passed in two weeks, the second one will take two months.
