350 abandoned workers to receive Ministry lifeline

The UAE Labour Ministry has vowed to get tough on companies who default on worker salaries.

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Abandoned workers have received a much-needed dose of Christmas cheer after being left poverty-stricken for months when bungling bosses failed to pay their wages.

UAE’s Ministry of Labour has leapt to the rescue of some 350 workers at a contracting firm in Al Ain. The company directors, who are now set to face legal action, reportedly did a runner recently and fled the UAE after failing to pay the workers.

Ministry of Labour officials have pledged to help ensure workers receive what they are owed, after initial attempts to settle the wages issue with the now-absent construction owners failed.

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It has been confirmed that the Al Ain firm has been referred to the labour court, with all new licences to that company and all other related firms halted.

The Ministry said it had taken such measures after receiving “hundreds” of complaints by workers that the company had failed to pay their wages on time in violation of the Wage Protection System (WPS) introduced by the UAE recently to ensure all workers and employees get their salaries on time.

“We have decided to stop dealing with that company in Al Ain and to halt the issuance of any new work licences to it and all other companies which are related to the owner of that company,” Mohsen Al Nasi, director of the labour inspection section at the Ministry of Labour, told Arabic newspaper Al Ittihad.

“We are also taking measures to refer that company to the general prosecutor after we failed to settle the issue between the two parties.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour was unavailable for further official comment when contacted by Construction Week.

The Wage Protection System is an electronic system initiated by the Labour Ministry in association with UAE Central Bank, where it is hosted.

Now mandatory, it comprises a database that records wage payments in the private sector to guarantee timely and full payments to employees. Companies defaulting salaries are not eligible for new work permits.