US embassy cable - 05ABUDHABI4175

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ABU DHABI 004175 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR FOR KARESH, ROSENBERG 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, DRL/IL (J.DEMARIA), G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, 
NEA/RA 
LABOR FOR ILAB, A.ZOLLNER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2015 
TAGS: ELAB, PREL, ETRD, KDEM, PINR, PHUM, TC 
SUBJECT: UAE LABOR:  RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 
 
REF: A. STATE 117361 
 
     B. DUBAI 334 
     C. ABU DHABI 1333 
     D. DUBAI 4816 
     E. ABU DHABI 3144 
     F. ABU DHABI 3877 
     G. ABU DHABI 3437 
     H. ABU DHABI 3297 
     I. ABU DHABI 3194 
     J. ABU DHABI 3074 
     K. ABU DHABI 3002 
     L. ABU DHABI 2833 
     M. ABU DHABI 2495 
     N. ABU DHABI 2365 
     O. ABU DHABI 1873 
     P. ABU DHABI 1740 
     Q. ABU DHABI 1551 
     R. DUBAI 3469 
     S. DUBAI 3187 
     T. DUBAI 2287 
     U. DUBAI 1870 
     V. DUBAI 1709 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR MICHELE J. SISON FOR REASONS 1.4 B 
 
1. (C) Summary and Comment:  Labor laws and practices in the 
United Arab Emirates are in a state of flux; the young 
Minister of Labor, Dr. Ali Al Ka'abi, is a technocrat 
appointed in the November 2004 Cabinet reshuffle for his 
energetic plans for reform rather than for family 
connections.  In the past year, the newspapers have announced 
changes in regulations and practices on an almost daily 
basis, leading to some confusion on the current state of the 
laws.  Despite Al Ka'abi's ambitious announcements, however, 
there remain significant obstacles to change within the UAE 
government and public.  Many companies, some led by 
high-ranking individuals, have balked at changes seen as 
threatening the cheap labor supply they depend upon. 
Regardless, the Ministry of Labor has publicly taken on some 
of these companies, imposing heavy fines and blacklisting 
them from bringing new employees into the country.  Whether 
these reforms and changes will remain law, and whether future 
changes that will require significant political will, manage 
to take hold and change the labor situation in the UAE 
remains unclear. 
 
2. (C) Summary and Comment Continued: Labor laws and 
practices will likely continue changing for the foreseeable 
future, as the UAEG attempts to meet the minimum labor 
standards required for a free trade agreement.  Post expects 
that some of the laws and practices detailed (per ref A) 
below may be subject to change as the reforms continue, the 
expected revised labor law is passed by the Cabinet, and the 
Ministry of Labor shake-up settles down. (Many personnel have 
resigned in response to new internal regulations limiting the 
number of companies MoL officials are allowed to sponsor-- 
attempting to cut down on potential corruption.) 
Additionally, the UAEG has not yet responded to Embassy 
requests for statistics on labor practices; the Embassy will 
continue to follow up with interlocutors.  End summary and 
comment. 
 
Administration of Labor Law 
---------------------------- 
3. (U) The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is headed by 
Minister of Labor Dr. Al Ka'abi, and by Under Secretary for 
Labor Dr. Khalid Al Khazraji and Under Secretary for Social 
Affairs Mariam Al Roumi.  The Ministry has offices in each 
emirate and additional offices in cities in Abu Dhabi and 
Dubai emirates.  Departments in the labor half of the 
Ministry include: Labor Relations, Companies Affairs, Labor 
Licensing, Inspection, Quality and Follow-up, Financial 
Affairs, Services and Equipment, Legal Affairs, Public 
Relations, and Administrative Affairs.  In April 2005, Al 
Ka'abi reassigned the directors of many of these offices in a 
bid to reduce corruption. 
 
4. (U) The number of inspectors in the labor division is 
currently changing; many of the inspectors have resigned in 
the past year.  In response, the Ministry of Labor has 
requested additional government funds to raise salaries for 
inspectors.  Historically, this division has been 
significantly under funded.  For example, U/S Al Khazraji 
told Ambassador in September 2005 that cars have not been 
funded for the division, requiring inspectors to either use 
personal vehicles with no reimbursement or remain in their 
offices.  The Ministry of Labor has publicly and privately 
requested a significant raise in funding, most to be used for 
the inspectorate, but thus far, the money has not been 
forthcoming.  Statistics on number of inspections and fines 
are not currently available, although the Embassy is 
following up on the item. 
 
5. (SBU) The labor dispute resolution process begins with a 
complaint filed (in Arabic) to the Ministry of Labor, which 
can then refer it to the court system if mediation does not 
work.  The Ministry encourages mediation since it is often 
faster than the court system.  For a thorough description of 
the disputes process, see ref B.  The cases sent to the court 
system are sent to the court in whichever emirate the alleged 
violation occurred.  Court cases are quickly adjudicated, 
labor cases are not subject to the fees that most court cases 
are, and labor cases are expedited within the court systems. 
When a case is delayed, the Ministry of Labor grants the 
worker temporary permits to legally continue employment in 
the UAE.  Rulings are fully implementable, even against 
sheikhs; there is not culture of impunity.  Lawyers have told 
Consulate officials that the courts generally rule in favor 
of the workers. 
 
Freedom of Association 
----------------------- 
6. (SBU) Current UAE labor law does not permit labor unions, 
although professional organizations do exist (ref C) and 
collective work dispute resolution is explicitly permitted. 
The UAEG has not specifically indicated any intentions 
regarding ILO Conventions 87 and 98.  The right to strike is 
not addressed in the law, but in practice the UAEG does not 
retaliate against work stoppages by protesting laborers.  For 
example, in September more than 800 workers blocked the 
highway in Dubai to protest unpaid wages (ref D). The vast 
majority of strikes are in response to unpaid wages, and most 
involve construction companies.  To address this problem, in 
the UAE's recent change in sponsorship practices (ref E) 
workers who have not received salaries for six months or more 
are allowed to change sponsors without receiving permission 
from their first employer.  Although the UAE could deport 
workers for striking, it very rarely does.  In one case, the 
newspaper did report that a worker was deported for inciting 
fellow workers to strike (not for the initial strike, but for 
continuing the strike once the Ministry of Labor had begun 
taking action on the case).  Other employees at this company 
who took part in the strike were not deported. 
 
7. (SBU) No current law addresses unions, but the UAEG is 
moving forward on this requirement in response to Free Trade 
Agreement negotiations.  The Minister of Labor told 
Ambassador in September that they have decided against a 
separate law permitting unions, instead including a clause in 
the revised labor law expected within the next year that will 
specifically allow the Minister of Labor the right to issue a 
decree permitting labor unions.  See ref F for a full 
description of these intended changes. 
 
Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively 
------------------------------------------- 
8. (SBU) Statistics on collective dispute settlement are 
currently unavailable, although informal estimates are that 
the vast majority of cases involve unpaid wages in the 
construction sector.  Money is frequently recouped through 
this process, although sometimes the government grants the 
employer a grace period.  The reason the majority of unpaid 
salary cases are in the construction sector is that 
construction contractors or subcontractors, facing cash flow 
problems due to late payments by primary contractors and/or 
the fact that they have underbid the project, find themselves 
with insufficient cash to pay workers on time.  The 
government has begun cracking down on this practice in a 
number of recent cases, but fully changing the situation will 
take a major change in the booming construction industry 
where competitors attempt to sharply underbid each other, 
sometimes at the expense of their lowest-paid employees. 
 
9. (U) Although there have been no reports of anti-worker 
rights discrimination, these practices would generally not be 
reported in the local press. There have been no extreme cases 
of anti-worker discrimination.  Thus, there is no special 
prosecutor assigned; such acts as beatings and murder are 
rare in the UAE. 
 
10. (C) Some members of professional associations have 
alleged that the UAE State Security Directorate (SSD) has 
subjected associations to harassment and close supervision. 
Members have noted that the government and SSD have forced 
out some association board members. (Note: Some teachers, who 
were part of the unions, were removed from their positions in 
2002 for Islamist tendencies. Professional associations have 
strongly protested this act.)  Recently, current Jurist 
Association chairman Dr. Mohamed Al Mansouri reported that 
the SSD wants to limit the speech of members of the 
association and has stopped him from giving speeches on human 
rights.  There is no proof, either for or against these 
alleged SSD acts.  In any event that the SSD is almost 
certainly monitoring the groups for potential ties to Islamic 
groups rather than for worker rights activities. 
 
Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor and Worst Forms of 
Child Labor 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
11. (U) Embassy has reported on trafficking of persons 
throughout the last six months, see Refs G through V. 
 
Minimum Wage 
------------- 
12. (U) The UAE does not impose a minimum wage or have 
minimum wage guidelines, but in practice Ministry of Labor 
officials inspect all contracts to ensure compliance with 
legally required benefits, allowances, and time of payments. 
In the UAE, the majority of contracts provide for housing 
allowances, transportation to home country annually, and 
educational stipends for children in addition to the base 
salary.  UAE citizens can receive social insurance benefits 
from the government if they do not earn a sufficient salary. 
Foreign workers usually remit the majority of their salaries 
to their home countries, and their daily living needs 
(housing and food allowances) are often provided separately 
from the base salary.  If workers have not been paid due 
wages, they have the right to file a complaint with the 
Ministry of Labor, and eventually escalate the case to either 
arbitration or the court system.  New regulations on 
sponsorship transfer also allow workers to change employers 
without a letter of no-objection if they have not been paid 
their salaries for six months or more -- without sacrificing 
entitlement to those monies from their first employer. 
 
Hours of Work 
-------------- 
13. (U) There is little reporting on hours of work or 
overtime regulations, although it is believed they are 
generally enforced.  In the summer of 2005, the government 
imposed a four-hour work break for outdoor laborers during 
the hottest hours of the day during July and August in an 
attempt to reduce the number of heat exhaustion cases.  A 
number of companies refused to obey this decree, and the 
Ministry of Labor imposed heavy fines and blacklisted many 
from receiving permits for new workers until they agreed to 
give their workers the required break.  Workers may file 
complaints with the Ministry of Labor if these laws are not 
obeyed. 
 
Occupational Safety and Health 
------------------------------- 
14. (U) In addition to the occupational safety and health 
regulations contained in the labor law, each emirate and 
locality has its own occupational health and safety codes. 
The Under Secretary of Labor told Econoff in July that the 
Ministry of Labor is unsure of all the codes that exist, and 
is hoping to enter into a consultative relationship with the 
International Labor Organization (ILO) to review and 
coordinate all existing health and safety regulations in the 
UAE.  He did not expect action to be taken during the summer, 
but hoped for an agreement to be reached with the ILO this 
fall.  Although inspectors do attempt to enforce health and 
safety regulations, there are insufficient inspectors and 
resources to adequately enforce these regulations.  There are 
frequently reports in the press of cases of workers who were 
killed on the job site as a result of inadequate safety 
measures.  The Ministry of Labor is aware of the problems, 
both in terms of regulations and adequacy of inspections, but 
lacks sufficient resources to address the problem in the 
short-term. 
 
Foreign Workers 
--------------- 
15. (U) No new law is being formulated to expressly address 
this situation of foreign workers in the UAE; any new 
regulations will be included in the revision of the labor 
law.  However, the UAE has issued a number of new decrees in 
the past months to open up the labor market to freer movement 
by workers (refs E and F).  These laws are so new, however, 
that their implementation has not yet been fully decided by 
the Ministries of Labor and Interior.  For example, although 
the Ministry of Interior has abandoned the six-month 
immigration ban on workers who leave their original jobs, the 
Ministry of Labor recently announced a delay of six months 
before offering a worker a new labor permit if an attempt is 
made to change employers without a letter of no-objection. 
Withholding of passports by employers remains illegal in the 
UAE, though it is still widely practiced.  There have been no 
recent or consistent attempts by the Ministries of Labor or 
Interior to enforce the regulation prohibiting holding of 
passports. 
SISON