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1,099 firms blacklisted for breaking labour law

DUBAI — Several thousands of inspection visits carried out by labour inspectors from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs revealed that the most common violations committed by companies are, besides the non-payment of salaries, the provision of inappropriate accommodation for workers and the recruitment of illegals, according to a senior labour official.

The ministry’s inspectors conducted a total of 33,089 visits to establishments in Dubai and the Northern Emirates in the period from the beginning of this year up to end-July, said Abdullah bin Suloum, Director of the Labour Inspection Department, observing that those visits resulted in the blacklisting of 1,099 errant companies that were found violating the labour law and regulations.

Noting that the number of inspection visits increased as a result of recruiting more inspectors and cooperating with the naturalisation and residency departments in carrying out joint campaigns, Mr bin Suloum stressed that despite the introduction of regulations meant to curb the violations which have a negative impact on the stability of the labour market and on the well-being and rights of the workers, several companies were repeatedly breaking the law or bending them to their own advantage.

However, he said that several establishments had started to show more cooperation to avoid being blacklisted and banned from obtaining any fresh visas and from processing sponsorship transfer applications.

A total of 388 companies were removed from the blacklist in the first seven months of the year after they rectified their violations.

“While large companies are more committed towards providing decent accommodation for their employees, many others do not show any genuine interest in improving the living conditions at workers’ camps,” Mr Bin Suloum said, disclosing that the ministry had recently made it a prerequisite for companies applying for group visas to clearly state in the labour contracts the provision of proper housing for their workers.

“Now we do carry labour inspection of the labour camps before approving the companies’ applications for new employment visas for large group of workers to ensure that the place where they will be accommodated is meeting the required specifications,” the director of Labour Inspection Department said.

He added that to complement this new move, the ministry is also engaging a number of its newly appointed labour inspectors in specialised training courses in industrial safety and security, due to the importance of monitoring and maintaining high levels of occupational and industrial safety in the industrial sector. He said that the labour inspector would soon witness a qualitative development under an understanding with the Smart Square of Zayed University, which is designing programmes for e-inspection.

The inspection visits covered visits to schools and nurseries, factories and construction companies to estimate the size of the projects and their actual need of workers in addition to industrial safety inspections of a number of establishments.