Conditions for cancelling visa without consent of sponsor, labourer listed

The move aims to widen the authority of the MoL to control the local labour market, striking a balance between the parties of the productivity relationship — worker and firm —and doing away with illegal labourers.

The Minister of Labour, Dr Ali bin Abdullah Al Ka’abi, yesterday issued a resolution, which will come into force after 15 days, calling for cancelling the sponsorship of a labourer on request of those concerned without the permission of the sponsor or the labourer in the following cases.

If the labourer applied to the ministry demanding so, if the labourer is caught unemployed or has no work for more than three months and has no complaint or lawsuit about his pending labour entitlements before the labour department or any court.

If the labour has not engaged in any work for more than six months and didn’t report to the ministry during that period even if he has or doesn’t have a complaint or a lawsuit before the labour department or any court in addition to the termination of his work relationship before the completion of the probation.

The resolution also specified the mechanism for notification and the required conditions which should be adopted in these cases. It stated that if the application for cancellation of the sponsorship was not forwarded by the employer he shall be notified to come within a week from the date of the notification in order to respond to the application and pay the fee, if there is any. If he didn’t show up on the seventh working day after the notification, the sponsorship will be scrapped without referring to him.

According to the resolution, if an employer responds to the application within a given time frame and says that a labourer is a suspect or wanted in any legal actions, the department concerned will give him another week as a grace period to furnish a travel ban order issued by court or any other authority and the department has the right to call off the sponsorship of the labourer without the consent of the sponsor if he failed to submit that order within that time.

And if the application is not presented by the labourer, he will be notified to come within a week from the date of the notice to hear from him about his entitlements. If he doesn’t report, his entitlements will be calculated as per data available at the labour department. The sponsorship will be annulled without hearing him but his due right will be preserved and delivered to him.

The Article (2) of the resolution deals with two cases in which the sponsorship is repealed on the request of the authority without the consent of the employer or the labour without the need of hearing it if the labourer is caught red-handed in violation of the conditions of the employment permit or the regulations or rules of practising the profession in the country according to the law and executive resolutions. The second case concerned the affliction of a labourer with a communicable disease or deporting by an order from the authority concerned or from the court or in line with rules and procedures of the labour inspection department in cases that don’t involve the first four cases.

In all six cases of cancellation, the resolution explained that if the employer doesn’t pay any fees for the delay in issuing or renewal of labour card within a week though he is asked to do so and the labourer is reluctant to pay them, these fees will be carried forward to the account of the firm. And until the firm pays these fees,the ministry will not accept internal or external employment permits from it or from all other companies owned by him or he is a partner with other owners or partners provided that there were no partners among them whose name didn’t feature. The ministry has the right to hold the balance of the banking guarantee of the firm or firms or take any other action to collect the required fees as per the law and executive resolutions.

Hameed bin Demas, Assistant Undersecretary, MoL, termed the resolution a remarkable progress in the legislations aimed at regulating the local labour market and it came as part of the measures to plug an existing loophole.

The resolution, he said, will solve the problem of labourers who report to the ministry to plead for a reduction of fines or stay in the country despite committing violations.

According to him, the resolution aims at streamlining and expediting the process of cancellation of sponsorship.

Under it, the sponsor will not be an obstacle before the labourer to settle his status.

“The resolution gives respect to employers by heeding their opinions and evidences in the cancellation, but the ministry preserves the sovereign right in taking the proper decision,” he said.