DUBAI – Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced the punishments which can be imposed for showing fake emiratisation as the country regulates its labour laws to enhance the participation of UAE nationals.
The development comes as Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has detected 380 false Emiratisation cases till date and inspection teams are actively monitoring suspected cases.
In a Twitter post on Wednesday, the authority highlighted three main actions taken by MoHRE when false Emiratisation is confirmed. These punishments include lowering the company to Category 3, referring the company violating the law to the Attorney General to take the necessary actions and ceasing the Nafis benefits from those involved in ‘false Emiratisation’
The statistics in this regard are promising as during the first quarter of 2023, MoHRE showed that the Emiratisation rate in the private sector increased by over 11 percent, showing “outstanding result,” contrary to 2022.
Delving deep into the stats confirms that business services saw a 10 percent growth in the hiring of Emiratis in the private sector, construction grew by 14 percent, while commerce and repair services grew by 13 percent, Arabian Business reported.
Besides, financial brokerage grew by 4 percent while the manufacturing industry grew by 10 percent.
What is Emiratisation Target
Under this reform introduced by the UAE, it is mandatory for companies with more than 50 employees to achieve an Emiratisation rate of 2% for skilled jobs to avoid penalties. Emiratisation means hiring of an Emirati in the company.
Starting from January 2023, non-compliant companies were informed that they will face financial penalties and a monthly fine of Dh6,000 will be imposed for every UAE national that has not been appointed.
A tweet by ‘Nafis’ at that time confirmed that the private sector companies are required to increase their emiratisation target by 2 percent annually.
Nafis is a federal programme to increase the competitiveness of Emirati human resources and empower them.
The reform has been introduced in a manner that if a UAE citizen employed by a private company resigns, the firm will have to recruit an Emirati to meet the Emiratisation target.
It was also announced that companies which successfully achieve Emiratisation targets will also receive major incentives as worker permit fees would be slashed for such private sector companies.
