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No fine on failure to renew labour cards

ABU DHABI — The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has retracted its decision to impose fine for failure to renew labour cards and declared a grace period of two months. The move follows pressure from private companies and establishments.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Ali Abdullah Al Kaabi, denied two weeks ago that the ministry had plans to amend the decree which stipulated fine for failure to renew labour cards.

Two days ago, he issued a new decree giving a grace period of two months for those who failed to renew their labour cards. They will have to rectify their status within this period.

As per the decree now amended, the employers would have ended up paying an enormous amount of money towards renewal of labour cards for their workers. Under the decree, an employee whose labour card is not renewed is to pay Dh5,000 for each year of delay, compared to the Dh2,000 earlier. Besides, the earlier charges were regardless of the number of years a worker delayed renewing the card.

This had reduced the number of applications for renewal of cards. Moreover, there were rumours that the ministry would restore the old system, as per which the fine was not as exorbitant.

Employees at a typing centre at the Ministry of Labour said since the decree came into force in September, only one person approached the counter willing to pay the fine.

Owner of another typing centre said he had seen last week two persons, who came to the ministry to pay the fine. The first person was to return home on humanitarian grounds after his friends collected nearly Dh23,000 to help him leave, while the second person paid Dh10,000.

The exorbitant amount of fine some small-size companies had to pay exceeded even their capital investments. Owner of a contracting company in Dubai refused months ago to pay DH3.9 million for renewing labour cards for his 410 workers. He prefers to wait till the government announced amnesty.

As expected, the Minister of Labour issued two days ago the ministerial decree no 1115 of 2005 exempting all the offending establishments from paying the fine. The decree will come into effect on January 1 and remain valid until February 28. As per the new system, Dh5000 per card will be charges irrespective of the number of years of delay.

Though the new decree gave a good deal of relief, the general feeling was that it came rather late. The ministry must emulate the Ministry of Interior, which exempted the violators of the residency law from paying the outstanding fine since 2003. The amnesty period continued for six consecutive months. The Ministry also gave a grace period to the violators at the end of 1996.

A number of representatives from the companies held the ministry responsible for the present situation. It had fixed a ceiling of Dh 2,000 as fine for expiry of labour cards, prompting companies to wait for long years, they pointed out.