Dh48,000 fine in UAE: June 30 deadline for private firms to meet Emiratisation target, ministry reminds

UAE companies employing 50 or more workers must meet their half-yearly Emiratisation target by June 30, authorities said in a reminder on Tuesday.

These firms should have expanded their Emirati workforce by 1 per cent before the deadline, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (Mohre) said.

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Starting July 1, the ministry will be checking companies’ compliance. Those who fail to meet the target will have to pay a fine of Dh48,000 for every Emirati not hired in the first six months of the year. Calculated at Dh8,000 per month per person, penalties pile up for every month a company is unable to fill up the required slots for UAE nationals. The monthly fine increases by Dh1,000 every year.

Private companies in the country are required to increase the percentage of their Emirati workforce by two per cent every year to reach at least 10 per cent by 2026. This target is divided into two: 1 per cent in the first half and another 1 per cent in the second.

So far, more than 97,000 Emiratis are working in more than 20,000 private companies in the country, Mohre said in a recent report.

“(This) underlines the effectiveness of the government’s Emiratisation decisions, policies, and initiatives, most notably the Nafis programme,” said Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

Early this year, Mohre has also started implementing the UAE Cabinet decision to expand the scope of Emiratisation to include firms with 20 to 49 employees. More than 12,000 companies with 20-49 employees, operating across 14 specific economic sectors, are now required to hire at least one Emirati in 2024 and another one in 2025

Inspections are regularly carried out to ensure compliance. Since mid-2022 until May 16 this year, more than 1,300 were caught violating Emiratisation rules.

The total number of Emirati employees in the private sector has grown at a rate of approximately 170 per cent since September 2021, when the government launched the Nafis programme, a federal initiative aimed at increasing the employability of Emiratis in the country's private sector.

Empowering national human capital

Mohre on Tuesday urged companies to adhere to Emiratisation targets.

• UAE: Number of Emiratis working in private sector jump by 170% since 2021