Six-month ban should not apply on all cases

DUBAI — Reacting to the news that after quitting a job, workers will be issued a work permit by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs only after six months instead of being slapped with a six-month ban with a stamp on the passport, most people said that such a move brought them back to square one.

Human rights activists believed that the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs should work towards providing fair and just treatment and maintaining rights and welfare of the worker and the employer.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs should not apply the six-month ban on all cases, but should study cancellation of work permits to ensure the welfare of both the worker and the employer with benefit of doubt in favour of the worker, Dr Mohammed Al Merr, Director of Human Rights Department at Dubai Police, told Khaleej Times commenting on the issue.

Dr Al Merr agreed that restrictions on the issuance of permits to workers whose visas being cancelled are to maintain employers' welfare and accordingly the country's economy but added that the ministry should give the opportunity to the worker — who is not granted sponsorship transfer by the sponsor for one reason or another and whose services were terminated or he was pushed to resign — to work in the country immediately without any restriction.

He proposed the ministry to set up a special committee assigned to study and investigate causes behind work permit cancellations on case by case basis to ensure fair treatment without a bias in favour of the workers.

"If the employer is no more interested in keeping the worker and did not agree to grant the subject worker a sponsorship transfer, the worker should be granted the right to be issued a work permit with another sponsor," he said.

"Besides, if the worker was pushed to resign from the company for work pressure or work frustrations such as when the employer fails to promote a worker after several years of service or payment of the later incentives, the worker in this case is pushed to resign, the ministry should not prevent such a case from the issuance of a work permit immediately after cancellation," he suggested.

The six-month ban on issuance of work permits to those whose visas being cancelled should be implemented in case that the worker left the job looking for a better pay and better benefits thereby affecting his or her sponsor's welfare by causing him financial losses and waste of effort and time, he said, adding, "if the door was left open to workers to jump from an employer to another employers, they will face losses and subsequently the national economy would be affected."

"We do not want to continue giving the opportunity to the employer to hold the worker’s welfare in his hand and subsequently exploit and pressurise the worker in a way or another," he noted hailing the lifting of the six-month ban that used to be placed automatically by the Ministry of Interior.