UAEG OFFICIALS AND OTHERS TELL A/USTR CLATANOFF LABOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DUBAI 000334

SIPDIS

USTR FOR DOUG BELL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/24/2015
TAGS: ELAB ETRD PHUM TC
SUBJECT: UAEG OFFICIALS AND OTHERS TELL A/USTR CLATANOFF LABOR
DISPUTE PROCESS WORKS

REF: ABU DHABI 296


CLASSIFIED BY: Jason Davis, Consul General, Dubai , UAE.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: In a January 18 visit to Dubai, Labor A/USTR
Clatanoff spent over two hours at the Ministry of Labor
observing the Ministry's labor dispute process. MinFin A/US
Khalid Al-Bustani told Clatanoff that labor was receiving
attention "all the way to the top" of the UAEG. In a meeting
with Emirati labor attorneys, Clatanoff was told that Dubai
courts handle labor disputes quickly, most often siding with the
employees. The Philippine Labor Attache told Clatanoff that "as
an institution, the Ministry of Labor is fair." End Summary.

Labor U/S Meeting
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2. (C) Following his meetings in Abu Dhabi (ref A),Assistant
United States Trade Representative for Labor William Clatanoff,
accompanied by Dubai PolEconoff (notetaker),spent January 18 in
meetings in Dubai focusing on how current UAE labor laws are
enforced. Clatanoff spent the morning at the Dubai branch of the
Ministry of Labor, first meeting with Ministry of Labor U/S
Khalid Al Khazraji and Salem Al Muhairi, Director of the MoL's
International Relations Department. U/S Al Khazraji emphasized
to Clatanoff that the UAE had worked with a team of ILO experts
when first crafting its Labor Law of 1980, and had only amended
a few articles since then. A revision to the labor law is
currently being drafted; proposed changes are reported septel.


3. (C) U/S Al Khazraji read off a few of the MoL's labor
statistics. He said that in Dubai most disputes involved unpaid
wages, adding that of these unpaid salary complaints, about 60
to 70 percent were from construction workers. Al Khazraji said
that the number of complaints in 2004 was actually lower than
that in 2003, and pointed to this decrease as a sign of
improvement. He said that while there were about 2.3 million
workers under the MoL's jurisdiction, complaints were filed by
only 16,400 people, UAE-wide, in 2004. (Note: The Labor Law does
not cover government workers, domestic servants, or agricultural
workers.) Of these complaints, around 5,600 were related to
unpaid salary and 4,300 to termination of contract. MoL, he
said, was able to settle most complaints in-house through
mediation: about 10,000 were concluded by the MoL, as opposed to
only 1,800 referred to court; another 3,500 complaints were
withdrawn or settled outside of either the mediation or court
process. Al Khazraji explained that most people preferred the
MoL process to a court case, in part because MoL was faster than
the court system.


4. (C) Al Khazraji said that of the workers who had gone on
strike (i.e. stopped work en masse and filed a complaint with
the MoL),around 95 percent were from the construction sector.
Al Khazraji said that nothing in the law specifically forbade or
authorized strikes, but that in practice the government allowed
them. When a group of workers stopped work, MoL asked them to
choose one representative to negotiate on their behalf.

Ministry of Labor -- Disputes and Inspections Departments
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5. (SBU) While touring the Ministry and observing the dispute
process first-hand, Clatanoff met with Labor Public Relations
Acting Manager Jassim Al Banna. Al Banna explained the labor
dispute process, noting that the complaints must be filed in
Arabic and that labor complaints must be filed at the MoL before
being referred to court. He said that a number of shops had been
set up outside the MoL to help workers draw up their complaint,
for a fee, and that at the MoL itself there were typists who
would take down a worker's oral complaint. Supporting documents
could be submitted in any language. After the employee or
employer filed the complaint, one of the ten Legal Advisors
(basically a Labor Officer) was assigned to the case. The
Advisor called in both sides of the dispute (with no lawyers
allowed) and gathered information such as bank receipts and
other documents. While the law gives the MoL only two weeks to
either resolve the dispute or refer it to court, Al Banna said
that this schedule was "unrealistic" and that a month was a more
reasonable timeframe. (Note: MoL said that this timeframe would
be changed to 30 days in the labor law revision. End note.) The
Legal Advisor reviewed the case and recommended a solution, in
fact acting as a mediator. The Legal Advisor's recommendations
were non-binding, and at any time in the process either party
could demand that the case be turned over to the courts. When
this occurred, the Legal Advisor sent his recommendation, along
with the entire file, over to the Dubai Courts Department.


6. (C) Al Banna described how a foreign worker had to get a No
Objection Certificate (NOC) from his/her employer if he wanted
to change jobs. Workers who quit their jobs before their
contract was up are subject to a six-month to one-year ban on
getting a new work permit for the UAE. Clatanoff asked if, in an
unfair dismissal case, the worker was required to leave the
country (since his residency is contingent upon his employment)
or if the MoL could let him stay in the country and perhaps even
work somewhere else. Al Banna replied that the Legal Advisor
first tried to persuade the company to allow the worker to be
reinstated or allowed to work elsewhere, but if that failed, the
worker was at least entitled to damages. If the case went to
court, the worker could apply to get work permission for the
duration of the case, and the employer was not able to block him
from receiving it.


7. (C) Director of the Labor Inspections Department Abdulla Bin
Suloom reported that his 95 inspectors checked for health and
safety, "labor checking" (NFI),work permission, and
investigation/follow-up. He claimed that MoL does do surprise
inspections. The fine for employing a worker illegally (such as
when the employer is not the sponsor of record) is 10,000 AED
(2,725 USD) per worker. Bin Suloom said that the number one
problem he encountered was illegal workers, who were generally
runaways from their original sponsors and working elsewhere. He
said every firm with 50 or more employees needed an MoL
certificate, and the MoL was required by law to inspect every
company twice a year, though Bin Suloom called this "impossible."

Meeting with Khalid Al Bustani
--------------


8. (C) In a brief meeting with Khalid Al Bustani, MinFin A/US,
who backs up MinState Finance Khirbash and is our principle UAEG
working level FTA contact, Clatanoff emphasized that the three
main labor issues were underage camel jockeys, freedom of
association, and the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Al Bustani explained that sometimes, from the perspective of
someone from the Ministry of Interior or other security-related
positions, the question is, if they have the right to
association, how do you control them? As an example, Al Bustani
cited UAEG concern -- given the huge Indian and Pakistani
populations in the UAE (often estimated at half the population
of the country) -- when tensions between India and Pakistan
suddenly flared up. "We were worried here, but they (the Indian
and Pakistani communities) weren't able to mobilize -- if they
had organizations, they would have been able to gather," and
trouble would likely have resulted. Al Bustani reassured
Clatanoff that labor had a very high level of attention in the
UAEG "all the way to the top. The President, the Crown Prince --
everyone is following this."

Meeting with Private Sector Labor Attorneys
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9. (C) Clatanoff met with three Emirati attorneys, two of whom
specialized in labor cases, in order to find out how the courts
handled labor cases. The attorneys reported that they were quite
happy with the courts and the way the system was working. For
example, whereas normally a court fee is levied equal to 7.5
percent of the claim, for labor cases there were no fees.
Moreover, they said, court cases are adjudicated quickly,
especially in Dubai. While a normal court case might require
four to six weeks between hearings, labor cases have only about
a week gap, because they are expedited. One attorney reported
that he had recently won a labor case against a sheikh, and that
the court's ruling had been carried out without a hitch. The
lawyers all agreed that courts generally ruled more often in
favor of workers. Clatanoff asked if they had ever heard of
Article 181 of the Labor Law, which provides for penalties of
six months' prison and/or a fine from 3,000 to 10,000 dirham
(about USD 825 to 2725),being applied to employers of underage
camel jockeys. Though Article 20 bans child labor, none of the
lawyers had ever heard of such a penalty being used.

Meeting with Philippine Labor Attache
--------------


10. (C) Vicente Cabe, Labor Attache at the Dubai Philippine
Consulate General, said that the UAE had good labor laws, though
he noted that they were not applicable to domestic servants.
"And something is missing in enforcement," Cabe added. He said
that there was no systematic problem in which the government
sides with its own citizens, as he had seen in other countries.
"As an institution, the Ministry of Labor is fair -- only
certain individual employees there favor their countrymen," Cabe
told us. Clatanoff pointed to Article 128 in the Labor Law,
which prohibits workers from changing employers if they leave
their contract without a "valid reason." Cabe said that this
prohibition was applied across the board, regardless of the
reason the employee left, and thought the UAE should judge these
reasons on a case-by-case basis. According to Cabe, most of
these problems are not large and do not need new laws.
"Ministerial orders are very easy and really change things,"
Cabe recommended.
Comment
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11. (C) A close examination of how the labor dispute process
works in practice reveals that the UAEG is both doing a credible
job and striving to improve. Workers who bring their disputes to
the Ministry of Labor or to the courts have access to justice
and receive full due process. The main barrier to an FTA on the
labor front is not the MoL or the courts, but the three issues
of forced and underage employment for camel jockeys, the legal
rights of organizing and bargaining collectively, and freedom of
association.

DAVIS