Protection of workers has improved
REPORT FINDS IMPROVEMENT ACROSS MOST SAFEGUARDING METRICS IN UAE SINCE 2014
The UAE has taken major steps in the recent years to improve safeguards for workers, the Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation said yesterday on the occasion of International Workers Day.
Releasing the 2017-2018 Worker Welfare Report, Nasser Bin Thani Al Hameli called for a labour market in the UAE that “empowers Emiratis and attracts talent from around the world”.
“Over the last two years, the UAE has taken significant steps to strengthen protection for workers. These include the introduction of the Domestic Labour Law, the standardisation of employment contracts, and measures to increase mobility and allow workers to change employers. The data that we are presenting today underline the overwhelming positive impact of these changes,” he said.
Across most safeguarding metrics, the ministry reported significant improvements since 2014. According to the report, the rate of labour disputes between employers and employees settled prior to a court referral was up from 76 per cent in 2014 to 81.68 per cent in 2016.
As many as 92.22 per cent of all workers are now protected under the UAE’s Wages Protection System, up from 90.8 per cent in 2014.
Meanwhile, 86.1 per cent of the businesses rated as establishments where workers are most at risk of labour abuses were inspected in 2016. The report noted that the ministry’s staff inspected 7,796 worker accommodation sites in 2016, compared with 5,200 in 2014.
“As one of the few countries to actively welcome large numbers of people from around the world, the UAE provides work to approximately one million new residents every year. Our aim is to ensure that the UAE remains a beacon of aspiration for all, regardless of race, gender or religion. But we also want to inspire confidence that, when things go wrong, residents will be treated fairly and with respect, and disputes are resolved quickly and cost effectively,” Al Hameli said.
This is the second annual report on worker welfare published by the ministry. The report covers a range of areas, with this year’s edition dedicating significant attention to the introduction of the 2017 Domestic Labour Law.
The other areas include reforms to the contractual relationship between employers and workers in the wider labour market, new requirements for businesses to provide low salaried workers with appropriate accommodation, and penalties for late payment of salaries.
Kerala, a state where labour rights are often fiercely protected by powerful trade unions, has marked May Day this year by abolishing a practice that has been a bane for the business community and the common man alike — the gawking fee, or a fee charged by workers for simply observing work being done by others.
The notorious practice, called nokku kooli in Malayalam, came to an end yesterday with the state Labour Department issuing an order to end the practice.
The practice was most prevalent when shifting goods from trucks to factory or office buildings or to homes.
Loaders would demand steep fees and if the owners themselves decided to shift the goods out of trucks, organised labourers would charge a gawking fee. The fee was seen by the business community and people of the state as daylight extortion, but despite bold statements by different political parties in the state to do away with the practice, the gawking fee continued to exist.
One estimate puts the number of Kerala’s loaders — workers who do the physical shifting of goods from trucks to buildings or at construction sites — at 200,000, a majority of them affiliated to the ruling Communist Party of India Marxist trade union, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions.
Mechanisation has in recent years reduced the need for loaders in different areas of work, but the workers have continued to demand gawking fees.
Reporting violations
CITU state president Anathalavattam Anandan said mechanisation has played havoc with the livelihoods of loaders.
With the stoppage of the gawking fee, those being charged exorbitant fees by loaders can inform the Labour Department about it, and workers who violate the rule stand the risk of forfeiting their labour registration cards.
200,000
workers who shift goods from trucks to buildings or at construction sites in Kerala. Their jobs are under threat from mechanisation.