The Ministry of Labour in UAE recently approved 11 languages that could be included in new UAE Labour Contracts as per the recent labour decree.
The job contract to be presented to workers within their job offers, labour contracts and annexes can include nine languages – Bengali, Dari, Chinese, Hindi, Malayalam, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, Tamil and Urdu, apart from the Arabic and English versions that are mandatory. This new policy would be implemented early this year, based on directives by Labour Minister Saqr Ghobash.
The Assistant Under-Secretary for Labour Affairs, Humaid bin Deemas, said that Arabic and English are two main languages in each job offer, labour contract and annexes presented to the workers. In addition to this, inclusion of a third language that the applicant can understand will be applicable both to workers coming from outside and those residing in the UAE and seeking new jobs, or are required to move from one company to another.
The other approved nine languages have been chosen based on statistics that highlight the highest number of workers using them, he explained.
The new languages confirm the ministry’s keenness to promote transparency between all parties, based on terms and conditions of employment and their rights and duties before entering the country to resume their duties, he said.
Deemas said that workers should look into job offers and annexes in their preferred languages before signing contracts, so as to reach a health work relationship between both employer and employee. The Annexes also must be reviewed, as they include several labour laws and amendments.
If it has been found that workers have not gone through the annexes prior to signing the contract, the ministry will take measures set by the Council of Ministers Decision No.40 of 2014 against the employers, who shall mandate Dh.20,000 fine for submitting incorrect data to the ministry, he said.
He further said that once the worker recognizes the nature of his work after reviewing his job offer and the terms and conditions printed therein before the official hiring, it helps reduce the number of labour disputes considerably, as in majority of previous cases, disputes arose after the worker accepts the job, as the terms were only verbally agreed upon. It is only thereafter that the Ministry launched fresh contracting procedures.
The Labour contracts and annexes are available on Ministry website. Workers can access the documents after filling in details like nationality, passport number and type of transaction.
