From March, all nationals and expats will have to hire domestic helps only from Tadbeer Centres, as the government completes shutting down of all private hiring agencies for recruitment of housemaids.
According to the Minister of HR, Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, the ministry shut 250 recruitment offices for domestic helps in the UAE, once their licenses had expired. The remaining 10 offices too, will be shut down in March.
The initiative is to streamline the hiring of this category of blue-collar employees in the country to better protect their rights. The Tadbeer centres, have substituted the agencies for recruiting domestic helps in the UAE. The services of these centres are regulated by MoHRE.
These centres are now entrusted with the task of brining in housemaids, nannies and other domestic workers from abroad.
The Tadbeer recruitment centres have been established by the ministry three years ago, and at present, there are more than 54 such centres in the UAE. These centres have helped bring a new standard for the provision of services to domestic workers, enable them access to better information, protect their rights and ensure that their working conditions and accommodation are met.
How are the domestic helps recruited?
The Federal Law No.10 of 2017 covers 19 service work occupations including guards, sailors, parking valet workers, gardeners, farmers, domestic workers, nannies, cooks, private trainers, nurses and drivers.
The Tadbeer centre guarantees a visa, orientation, training to domestic workers.
It provides customers with four packages to choose from to recruit domestic helps. These include:
Direct Sponsorship, wherein Tadbeer centres recruit the helps from outside the UAE and guarantee their performance and loyalty for 180 days, and their visa will be under direct sponsorship of the employing family.
Direct Sponsorship after 6 months, wherein, families hire a worker on temporary basis for six months, and thereafter, the domestic worker’s visa can be transferred under the family sponsorship on mutual consent of both parties.
Tadbeer Sponsorship, which provides option to hire workers under sponsorship of the Tadbeer centre.
Time-bound packages, which provides on-demand services that permits families to hire a helper under the sponsorship of Tadbeer centres to provide flexible services based on customer requirements.
Payment for domestic helps
As per latest labour law, domestic helps are entitled to payment of wages as mentioned in the standard contract, within 10 days from the day they are due for payment.
Apart from this, they are eligible for one day of paid rest per week, 12 hours of rest per day, including 8 hours of consecutive rest, 30 days of paid vacation annually, and medical insurance provided by the employer.
They are also eligible for 30 days medical leave every year, a round-trip ticket home every two years, a decent accommodation, decent meals at employer’s expense and so on.
