Workers of bogus sponsors face ban

Jasim Jamil, Director of the Work Relations Department, MoL, said that non-employment of workers indicated that the work relationship is fake.

“Such a violation of law will entail a one-year ban against the worker for failing to notify the Ministry of his situation and not applying to transfer his sponsorship to a new sponsor,” he said at the Open Day of the ministry on Monday.

The owner of the idle firm, he said, will also be fined Dh10,000 for importing workers to get financial gains or allow those workers the chance to search for work in the country.

The owners of bogus firms circumvent the law through malicious notices of absconding workers, though they know their whereabouts, he said.

“Inspectors are striving to detect these erring firms early,” he said and called on sponsors to correct their status by revoking these notices and granting workers their full rights.

He explained that the MoL cannot cancel labour cards of workers inside the country. The procedure is to summon the worker and his employer to ensure that the worker has been granted all his rights. Only then can cancellation take place. If the worker is out of the country for more than six months, it will be cancelled automatically.

Absconding notice will not prevent the employer to write off the firm from the MoL register. This procedure will protect the employer if the worker is on the run or is still inside the country, he added.

Citing an example, he said an employer applied for cancelling the residency of a worker after he placed an absconding notice on him in 2007 for being outside the country. However, the department of naturalisation and residency confirmed the stay of the worker inside the country and can only be cancelled administratively after six months of his departure.

As this term was not satisfied, the application was refused.

adel@khaleejtimes.com