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Wages Protection System hailed as labour disputes drop sharply

The number of employees who had refused to work over labour disputes in the country has fallen by more than 45 per cent over the last four years.

While 121 people struck work in 2008, there were only 65 cases last year, and the Wages Protection System (WPS) enforced in the country has been cited as the main reason for the decline.

A report released by the Ministry of Labour recently also attributed the decrease to the laws and initiatives launched by the government to protect the rights of the employees, notably the WPS. “The number of people who refused to work was 104 in 2009, 81 in 2010 and 67 in 2011,” the report said. The WPS which has been implemented in three phases since 2009 has provided an opportunity to the private companies to show transparency by adopting the system. The ministry and the UAE Central Bank enforce the system, by which the wages of the private sector employees are transferred directly to the employees’ bank accounts or accounts in money exchange companies. The ministry gets updated information, which helps it monitor whether the companies are paying the wages of their workers regularly.

The report said 3.2 million private sector employees — which is 82 per cent of the total employees — received their salaries through the WPS last year, while 84 per cent of the companies are registered with the system.

malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com