UAE LABOR CONDITIONS UPDATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ABU DHABI 001289

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/RA, DRL AND EB/CBA
STATE PASS OPIC/OPIC INTERNATIONAL POLICY DEPARTMENT FOR
VIRGINIA GREEN AND CONSTANCE SHINN
STATE PASS USTR JASON BUNTIN
USDOC FOR ITA/MAC

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB PHUM PGOV PREL SOCI CVIS GTIP TC
SUBJECT: UAE LABOR CONDITIONS UPDATE


1. SUMMARY: Following is an update of UAE labor issues in
March and early April. Topics include: an update of the
proposed labor law; discussions of working conditions for
domestic servants; an inter-ministry proposal to create a
nation-wide labor court system; employer/employee disputes
reported in the press; "blacklisting" companies in Dubai;
lack of interpreters at MOL; occupational hazards in the
construction sector; and recent government actions affecting
workers. END SUMMARY.

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LABOR LAW UPDATE
--------------


2. MOL Labor Advisor Yousif Gaffar Al Noor told Poloff in
late March that the proposed labor law remains with the
Federal Supreme Council, with an estimated completion date
of June or July. Al Noor confirmed that the amendments
covering collective bargaining and association are now
completed and have been forwarded to a technical committee
for further review. This technical committee, comprised of
representatives from the Ministries of Labor, Interior,
Justice, and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Chamber of
Commerce and other professional associations, will take
approximately a month to review the amendments, after which
time they will be included with the proposed labor law at
the Federal Supreme Council. Al Noor added that the
technical committee is also considering the ratification of
ILO Conventions 87 and 98. The MOL and ILO worked together
for about two years to draft the proposed labor law, and
continue to meet regularly. Labor Undersecretary Khalid Al
Khazraji told Poloff in late February that all major ILO
concerns have been pointed out to him and are either
addressed in the draft law or in the amendments. In the
April 13 "Gulf News," Khazraji said that the number of
expatriate workers reached 2.5 million, and the MOL issued
half a million employment visas in 2003.

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DOMESTIC SERVANTS
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3. Post has noticed increased media coverage highlighting
working conditions for domestic servants. Housemaids do not
require labor permits, and are not protected by the labor
law. Instead, they enter the country under the direct
sponsorship of their employers, and disputes are handled by
the Ministry of Interior's (MOI) Naturalization and
Residency Department. While regulations currently require
domestic servants and their employers to sign contracts and
submit them to the MOI, media reports and Embassy contacts
state that, in practice, this requirement is often ignored.
When contracts are produced, they often are too vague to
offer real protection to the workers, or the terms of the
contract are ignored after a few months on the job.


4. In the April 10 issue of "Gulf News," MOI Director
General of the Directorate of Naturalization and Residency,
Brigadier Hadher Al Muhairi, said that the MOI was creating
a standard contract, stipulating wages, working conditions,
and all benefits and/or required fees, to regulate the
relationships between housemaids, farmers, and chauffeurs
and their sponsors. Al Muhairi said the MOI will also
require an additional contract between sponsors and
recruitment agents, if used. The contracts will stipulate a
paid, three-month probation period, and the full terms of
the contract will kick in only after the worker successfully
completes this probation. Disputes arising between
employers and employees will continue to be referred to the
MOI's Naturalization and Residency Department for mediation,
followed by a court of law if settlement can't be reached.
Workers will lose all benefits and protections under their
contracts if they abscond from the job.


5. On March 4, "Gulf News" reported a roundtable discussion
of international scholars and UAE sociologists who stressed
the need to bring housemaids under the umbrella of the
updated labor law. While acknowledging that domestic
workers do not come under the labor laws of many countries,
they said that the Gulf region must change its mindset
towards servants from the "Mueel"(guardian, or part of the
family) perspective to the "Kafala" (sponsor) paradigm.
During Poloff's last few conversations with Undersecretary
of Labor Dr. Khalid Al Khazraji, he said that the revised
labor law would likely not include protections for domestic
servants. However, the MOL is aware that more needs to be
done to protect the rights of housemaids, and is looking
into ways to do so.

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LABOR COURTS
--------------


6. In another "Gulf News" report on April 10, Minister of
Labor and Social Affairs Matar Humaid Al Tayer explained
that the Ministries of Labor and Justice are working
together to create a nation-wide labor court system to
resolve labor problems, primarily complaints by workers of
unpaid wages, more quickly. Al Tayer said that, while no
timetable is set for the creation of the court system, it
would be established "soon" in order to cut the increasing
number of complaints filed by workers.

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STRIKES AND DISPUTES
--------------


7. The media reported several labor disputes between
expatriate workers in the construction sector and their
employers in March. In Dubai, 2,930 workers from different
companies stopped working to protest non-payment of salaries
for several months. Negotiations yielded a settlement,
whereby some companies promised to pay on an installment
basis.


8. In one case, over 2,000 workers stopped work to protest
unpaid wages. They marched toward the Dubai Labor Office,
but the police turned them away. Another 100 construction
workers attacked the site engineer and damaged equipment at
the site. Reportedly, this was the seventh time they had
approached the MOL in the last eight months to complain of
unpaid wages. The Labor Relations Department assured the
workers that they would receive the first installment of
their back wages on March 20. But the workers again
approached the Labor Ministry after the employer failed to
honor the agreement.


9. Another publicized dispute involved 73 Moroccan workers
who entered the UAE on visit visas, then went to work for an
interior decorator. The workers filed a complaint with the
MOL for non-payment of two months of wages and for delayed
issuance of work visas. Undersecretary for Labor Dr. Khalid
Al Khazraji determined that, since the workers breached the
labor law by working after entering the country on visit
visas, their claim was invalid. The MOL turned the case
over to the MOI's Department of Residence and Naturalization
to review the immigration violation.


10. On April 6, over 40 teachers from the Ras Al Khaimah
educational zone filed a complaint with the Ministry of
Education and Youth stating that evening staff and teachers
had not been paid for three months. They have threatened to
quit working before the end of the academic year if their
salaries are not paid soon.

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WAGE PROTECTION
--------------


11. The problem of non-payment of salaries continues to
persist in the UAE despite the MOL's decision last year to
require contracting companies that employ 200 or more
workers (amended later to companies that employ 50 or more
workers) to submit regular wage statements. Ministry
sources stated that around 80% of these firms have not
complied with the mandate and have been "blacklisted" by the
MOL, which prevents the firms from further dealings with the
Ministry and from applying for visas for additional workers.
In March alone, the Ministry blacklisted 100 firms in Dubai
for violating the new regulation. Firms are removed from
the blacklist once they come into compliance with
regulations.

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LANGUAGE BARRIERS
--------------


12. Another problem reported by the press involved the MOL's
lack of translators. Workers asked the Ministry to recruit
translators to help with disputes between employers and
employees. They said the absence of foreign language
speakers at the Labor Relations Department violates their
rights because the workers, who often speak neither Arabic
nor English, are often unable to present their cases. On
March 2, Labor officials said they would appoint a team of
translators to assist with dispute resolution.

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OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
--------------


13. The media reported that the construction sector is the
largest violator of occupational safety conditions in the
UAE. Official sources reported that 60 percent of all labor
injuries occurred in the construction sector. In one case,
nine construction workers were killed and two were injured
on April 12 in Sharjah when the arm of a crane fell from the
16th floor of a high-rise building under construction and
landed on their vehicle. The cause of the crane's arm
coming off its mooring is under investigation, and the
public prosecutor is also conducting an investigation to
determine if charges should be filed. This tragedy follows
a similar incident only a week earlier, when one person was
killed in Abu Dhabi after a 130-meter crane collapsed across
the road.

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GOVERNMENT DECISIONS
--------------


14. The MOL stated that its decision four months ago to
restrict the inflow of illiterate workers by mandating high
school certificates for all expatriate workers has resulted
in a favorable reshuffling of the labor market. The number
of illiterate workers and others with less than a secondary
school education decreased by 19%. However, the MOL decided
in February to exempt five categories: workers in
contracting, sewage, water facilities, electricity, oil and
gas pipes.


15. The MOL announced its plan to launch an E-Registration
system on May 1 to ensure a smooth and efficient procedure
for submitting bank guarantees for employment visas.


16. On March 8, "Al Ittihad" newspaper announced that the
MOL banned employee recruitment companies from acting as
sponsors of imported employees or from practicing any other
kind of business activities that use such workers, in an
effort to organize the labor market and control the ongoing
illegal practice of "trading in visas." Visa trading occurs
when foreign workers pay large fees, often thousands of
dollars, to UAE sponsors in return for employment visas.
Often, the employers do not provide the workers with jobs,
so they are left to find employment on their own, often
illegally, after arrival. The sponsors sometimes report the
employees as absconders once they have collected their fees,
adding to the workers' legal difficulties. Although the MOL
has increased the number of inspectors over the past year to
avoid issuing work permits to fictitious companies, there
still aren't enough to properly inspect the huge number of
businesses nationwide. Banning recruitment agencies from
sponsoring employees or "farming them out" to their own
businesses instead of acting strictly as recruitment brokers
also helps to avoid the illegal but common practice of
recruiters demanding commissions or regular fees from the
imported workers, under threat of canceling their visas. By
law, only employers can be charged recruitment fees.

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ILLEGAL WORKERS
--------------


17. Illegal immigration and illegal workers continued to
pose problems for the UAEG. The Department of Residence and
Naturalization, in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Police,
implemented several "inspection campaigns" against illegal
workers and residents in March. The majority of those
arrested were women. According to the MOL, many of these
women entered UAE on visit visas from emirates other than
Abu Dhabi, then moved to Abu Dhabi to work in a number of
occupations, including prostitution. Officials said that
these campaigns would continue in Abu Dhabi.


18. Immigration officials said that retinal scans and
fingerprints taken during the 2003 amnesty are helping to
stop workers from returning to the UAE before the end of
their ban. Lengths of the ban are six months to one year
for those who had resident visas at one time, and a lifetime
ban on those who stayed illegally with no documents.
Although some have obtained new sponsors, they are still not
eligible to return before the end of the ban and are turned
away at the port of entry. Officials at the MOI's
Department of Naturalization and Residency warned workers
that, even if they are issued new employment visas before
the end of the ban, they will not be allowed to enter the
UAE until they spend the full amount of time outside the
country. According to media reports, many potential illegal
immigrants are trying to enter the country on new visas
issued from emirates other than the one from where they were
deported. Others are trying to enter with false documents
using different names. However, retinal scans and
fingerprints taken before their departure are effectively
preventing their return. To add to their problems, those
who are caught and deported again will face another one-year
ban, beginning from the date of the second deportation.

ALBRIGHT