DUBAI — The Ministry of Labour is planning to liquidate bank guarantees deposited by employers in banks at the time of filing for absconding notifications, a senior official revealed yesterday.

The guarantee required upon filing absconding notification covers the fare of an air-ticket to the absconding employee’s home country. Humaid bin Deemas, the Assistant Under-Secretary said yesterday that it had become imperative to liquidate the guarantees, specially those deposited in banks by companies that no more exist in the labour market. “Keeping this money in banks will depreciate their value over the years. Instead, the ministry plans to liquidate them and deposit the money in its account, allocating it to the deportation of illegal workers, especially those on the sponsorship of bogus firms or establishments that had closed down,” Bin Deemas clarified.  In a meeting with the directors of labour offices and the heads of departments and sections held in Dubai last week, Bin Deemas said that the ministry will start the implementation of the new ministerial orders on the new procedures of absconding notifications, and on the employment of expatriates this Tuesday. He disclosed that the ministry is ready for the implementation of the new rules as it had already introduced the electronic software, stressing that with the enforcement of the new rules, workers absconding their employers will risk getting a life-time ban on working in the UAE.

The Assistant Under-Secretary noted that the new procedures would curb the phenomena of illegal workers by strictly controlling and monitoring the workers’ relations with their employers through forcing both to inform the ministry about any change in the labour relation status within a specified period of three months. Failing to do so, the worker will risk a ban and the company will risk being fined. The implementation of the new rules will be carried out with the departments concerned as the ministry is in talks with the naturalisation and residency departments to cancel the labour card and the employment visas at the same time. “We are also in talks with the court to expedite the labour cases because there are cases pending since 2000, which is a very long time for leaving a dispute non-settled, leaving room for the existence of more illegal workers.”

According to Bin Deemas, there are hundreds of thousands of illegal workers in the country “and this is not a healthy situation,” he added: “This situation had dictated the introduction of tough penalties. He said that many illegal workers are turning themselves in to the authorities and the ministry is making arrangements to handle the procedures quickly and efficiently at one counter. All the new ministerial orders and labour regulations are featured on the ministry’s web site to educate the general public on the recent measures to organise and monitor the labour market. They will also be printed in brochures and distributed among the diplomatic missions of the countries exporting manpower to the UAE, Bin Deemas said, noting that the ministry will allocate some of its staff to educate the workers about their rights and duties and about various procedures.

Jassim Al Banna, Head of the Labour Relations Department of the ministry, also spoke at the meeting clarifying that only If a worker absents himself from work for seven consecutive days without excuse can the employer report him as absconding, and not before that. He explained that under the new absconding notification rules, the ministry will collect a lumpsum of Dh3,000 for each worker reported absconding, instead of the old system of depositing the amount of an air ticket which in some cases can reach big amounts.

Other officials at the meeting highlighted the fact that most of the absconding notifications are malicious because of disputes between employees and their employers, while other officials expressed their opinion about the ministry’s solutions to some problems as being partial reactions and not comprehensive solutions. Bin Deemas said that the ministry had been facing since 35 years the problem of bogus companies, forcing the ministry to resort to hefty fines and penalties “which proved to be a good move, since it revealed a lot of violations,” he said.