US embassy cable - 04ABUDHABI1289

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. 
 
---------------- 
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. 
 
----------------- 
DOMESTIC SERVANTS 
----------------- 
 
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. 
 
------------ 
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. 
 
-------------------- 
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. 
 
--------------- 
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. 
 
----------------- 
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. 
 
------------------- 
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. 
 
-------------------- 
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. 
 
--------------- 
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