UAE considers draft law to ban termination of Emiratis

[oscarlimatango]

UAE considers draft law to ban termination of Emiratis


The National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority (Tanmia) has drawn up the plans, which if agreed, would make it illegal for nationals to lose their jobs unless for a violation of the labour laws, according to UAE daily Gulf News.

Feddah Lootah, the acting director general at Tanmia, said the proposal aimed to safeguard Emirati’s jobs in the private sector. "The main task of the authority is to preserve the jobs of Emiratis," he said.

Lootah's comments comes days after Dubai’s Police Chief warned that arbitrary layoffs of UAE nationals by private sector companies were in breach of the law and the country's traditions.

Lt Gen Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said the police would boycott companies that terminated nationals at short notice, using the global crisis as an excuse.

Tamina's draft proposals state that if a company is forced to terminate a local, because of restructuring or as a result of a merger, then it must inform the ministry of the intention before moving forward with the decision.

However, every possible avenue must be explored to keep a local employee in post before job loss will be sanctioned by the ministry.

Part-time working, relocation, salary review and extra training for an alternative post must all be considered, and it will be unlawful to terminate an Emirati for lack of qualifications and skills if the probation period has passed, it adds.

No time-frame has yet been given by the ministry as to when a decision on the Tanmia proposals will be made.

However, last week a group of Emiratis filed a complaint against Al Futtaim Group for arbitrary termination of their employment contracts, according to the same newspaper.

The labour laws that cover the termination of a worker's contract are set out in Article 120 – there are 10 cases in which an employer is legally allowed to end an employee's contract.

These include non-performance of basic duties, repeated violations despite warnings, professional mistakes resulting in substantial material loss to the employer and clear disregard for safety instructions in the workplace.

Furthermore, changes to the pension law are also in the pipeline that will see a clause included in the social insurance scheme stipulating that unemployment insurance must be available to nationals, Lootah revealed.





So whats next? No Imaratis will ever have to work and companies have to pay them for free!

[Al Fakhem]

No Imaratis will ever have to work and companies have to pay them

Isn't that what most of them are already up to anyway?

[halas]

I can picture what is going to happen...

A company downsizes, lays off most of it's expat employees and ends up with locals only.

Join the dots on this and tell me what will happen to that business?

halas

PS this is up there with the Dhm 1,000,000 fine for media talking down the local economy.

[kit330]

well it's their country, they can do whatever they wanna do...don't tell me you guys for once thought that locals should be laid off before expats. It's normal anywhere in the world, if some major thing like this happens in the world, the first that should be let go are the expats... come on grow up guys, we are all temp workers here in a sense...if I was a local anywhere in the world and I was laid off before an expat,damn sure I'd be p*#t off too...

[Fart Master]

Kit330, what a crock of sh*t, in the UK they would probably lay off the 'Locals' first and keep the cheap labour, i.e. the illegal immigrants.

So in the UK I can 'do whatever I wanna do...'???, on the contrary I come from a 1st world country with democratic laws, regardless of what you may think of the UK. So no, I couldn't 'do whatever I wanna do...', there are things called labour laws......

When you give children money they are prone to chucking their toys out the pram, it's just another case of take, take, take

[777-200LR]

Fart Master, if you watched any english news channel last week, you would have seen the story on those plant workers that were on strike in protest against some foriegn workers on the job while the skilled english are unemployed.

I think these days with the world economical downturn, England and many parts of Europe have gone so far in the wrong direction when it came to hiring so many foriegners (thinking it would be less expensive), many more such strikes will take place in favour of local unemployed workers.

The only major difference is that the UAE does not have enough skilled, qualified or very experienced numbers to replace all the expats.

[Fool 'n' Tameez]

I agree that rising nationalism in the region is highly concerning. There is a lot of public discontent against foreigners, and the level of vitriol is scary. But let's not pretend that this is solely happening in the middle east. The ugly head of nationalism is rising everywhere unfortunately. Funny people mention Europe. Nationalist sentiment has been rising for a number of years now (remember Jorg Haider?), but it is accelerating at an alarming pace.

In the UK you have the refiners striking against an Italian contractor using Italian labour to build an expansion of a refinery somewhere up north. You have all kinds of backdoor methods in France and Germany in particular (collective labour agreements etc...) designed to keep out foreign competition. And worst and most blatant is the changing of EU laws to restrict the movement of labour from newly joined member nations (ie keep out the poles and czechs).

These are dark times.

[kit330]

Fart Master u dont know anything about what you're talking about!!! being from the UK you shld know that it's bcos of the EU rules that you guys follow that the "locals" there are fired 1st(as mentioned by u) instead of the "cheap" labour your talking about!! Next where is this "cheap" labour coming from??? FROM THE EU ITSELF!!! So that u understand,let me try again:it's like someone from california saying all u cheap laborers from florida are talking our jobs!!! wake up and smell the latte mate. you're pi*t off at this so called "cheap" laborers taking ur jobs in UK, imagine now how those emirati that wanna work feel when THEIR jobs are taken by us expats??? remember UAE is not made up of just abu dhabs n dubai; one of these days take a drive to the rest of UAE n you'll see the sad side of UAE where honest hard working emiratis live n work and mind you there are hard working emiratis looking for jobs...

[skytrax]

I go to a gym located in a five star hotel here in Dubai. There are a few guys working at this gym, including a local guy. All he does is to watch tv in a corner. He doesnt care, he wont be fired for that.

[BladePilot]

Already in force in KSA.

So what's the difference then to Muppet British PM Brown claiming he would deliver 'British Jobs for British workers' before he got into office?

Any company operating in Europe has to prove that they have exhausted all attempts to fill a vacancy with a suitable European candidate before they can employ a candidate who doesn't hold a European passport.

I have worked with a lot of locals in UAE, KSA, Oman and other regions on the Arabian Peninsula and find them little different to any other nationalities I have worked with, some good, some not so good, some lazy and some most definitely not lazy.

Same old same old around the world.

If you can't stand the heat get out of the Kitchen.

[fatbus]

Now put two locals that you could not fire flying your brand new A380, who are they going to blame the bent airplane on

[Payscale]

You dont fire them. You transfer then to another type. That has already happened recently.

[K9]

The First Great Depression ended with Nationalism, the rise of the Nazi's and then culminated in WWII. Why would this be any different?

When people are laid off work and suffer financial distress they want to blame someone and take out their frustrations. Clever politicians direct this anger in the same way as they do religious extremism. If they can mix the two even better. Create a Boogy Man and then tell everyone to join the cause to eliminate him.

As the Second Great Depession unfolds we can expect to see some horrendous acts directed towards minorities, expats or whoever looks a likely scapegoat. This will be fueled by politicians. Hey George Bush has already done it when he told the world to join him and beat the cr@p out of the Iraqis.

Ultimately there will be wars.

Protecting nationals seems justified at first glance but drawing distinctions by race, colour, creed or passport is the first step down a perilous road.

"If you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs and blaming it on you" - Kipling

[Gulf Immigrant]

My Personal Experience and Opinion

This is my first input into this forum and I found the thread appealing.

Departed Bahrain and worked across many of Gulf countries, I found them all have incredible level of racism and chaos. Their job markets are governed by more than 50-years-old backward labour laws mainly addressing indemnity, leaves and wages, they prove that dignity of people is marginal. While working in Bahrain, I was suffering from racist behaviours of some Asian managers. However, after working across other neighbours, I perceived the same at the hands of some locals!

When you live and work a region that allows discrimination against its own people under religious basis, it will do the same against expatriates. Few years ago, I was offered an employment at a club for Shaik Zayed Military Air Force but then it was revoked after getting to know that I am shia! Last year, few Bahrainis MPs pled for an investigation into facts and figures proving discrimination against employment of Bahraini shia into defense and security sectors. The result, long-bearded and short-garments MPs with few others did a lobby to kill it off. One of the latter quoted saying;" how can we investigate discrimination when we have alcohol and pork in the country"!!! (he is the man behind a proposal to ban alcohol on Gulf Air fleet)

Unlike America and Europe, Gulf labour laws do not have legislations addressing issues like diversity, equality, labour unions (except shortly for locals and expatriates in Bahrain), redundancy, restructuring, etc and consequently rights of people are always lost, especially at this critical time. The funny but painful part is that weather you resigned or the Company decided to ruin your future and terminate your employment for reasons or no reasons, the indemnity is equivalent! (there are slight changes in cases of work accidents)

It is true that some cases of discrimination happen in America and Europe like everywhere, but the fact there are laws to minimise their incidents, unlike in the Gulf. You can't clear people grudges, but certainly you can limit them. Sense of nationalising jobs should not be managed in a context of racism because human resources is not human racism, and companies must be managed in a balance between commercial and social arguments!

Now I am happy immigrated away from racists and no one could put my future in risk for my religous background.

Thank you all.

[Cityliner]

Dubai needs people "workforce" to fill their Apps., Villas s.o and they need money from those people to run their Gyms, Malls, Restaurants and whatever.

-Now fire people
-After 3?Month they have to leave the country if no new Job is found
-People leave, take families and everything with them, maybe leave some unpaid mortages.
-Potential new "workforce" thinks twice before moving to the UAE because Job safety is important for them.

Result less people live there, less people spent their money there

Sound like a plan

[Desert Budgie]

Does anyone know what's happening to those poor folk who lose their jobs with motgages, personal loans, car loans etc?

Obviously you can't pay your debts if you don't have an income. The banks will freeze your assets if you don't have a job. Immigration will be alerted by the banks incase you do a runner. You can't sell your house or car because you will make far too little to pay off the debts. What are they going to do?

They can't possibly keep you here because the chances are you won't find another job, especially if you are working in the construction and property sectors. If they do keep you here because you have debt, it won't benefit them if you can't pay it off. You can't afford to keep a family here, especially if you have kids and you can't pay for school.

Are they just taking every penny and asset you have and letting you leave with nothing!? If anyone knows how the UAE is dealing with this please shed some light, because the above scenario is real, and happening to hundreds, even thousands of folk over here.

Cheers

DB

[Schibulsky]

...if you lose everything the new law probably gives the emirati (remember? the one who sat at your office the last years doing nothing!) the right to hire you as his household slave to work off your depts at 20dhs/hr

[Desertweasel]

Headline from Gulf news

Companies will think twice before firing Emiratis.

How prophetic that changing one letter gives you the end result of this particular stroke of genius.

Companies will think twice before hiring Emiratis.

[halas]

Companies employ expats so their business can run with qualified staff, if there are no Locals who can do the same job.

Many nationals are employed because the government tells them to. A sort of social security tax placed on the companies. Many contribute very little to the bottom line of the business.

If the company goes bad, and they have to lay off staff, and it's only expats that can be fired, who is left? Baby with the bath water.

Now join the dots.....

halas

[40&80]

In Bahamas Airways there were 1000 Bahamians and 200 expats happily employed.
The new coloured government decided to issue nomore work permits to
expat airline staff......the result was the new majority owners (The Swire Group i.e.Cathay Pacific) visiously liquidated the company at such a time to cause maximum damage to the new governments credibility...and 1000 locals were immediately unemployed.
However within 6 months the 200 expats were all re-employed around the world whilst the 1000 locals generally lost a lot.
There was also a question of a flag carrier status dispute also at the time (promises had been broken) that helped establish the actions of both parties.
The farmer and the cowboy should be friends.