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Dubai: Companies which falsely report a worker as absconding for malicious reasons will face harsh penalties, according to a decision issued by the Ministry of Labour.
Transactions with all companies of the sponsor will be stopped and he will have to pay labour card violation fees if the ministry proves that he reported a worker as absconding for malicious or false reasons, according to the new decision that will be effective in two weeks time.
The new rule, issued by Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, also stipulates that workers who abscond will be permanently banned from working in the country. An absconder is a person that has not worked for seven consecutive days without a valid reason.
"We want to emphasise that to abscond is a clear violation of the law and whoever commits such an act will have to face the consequences.
"But at the same time we have to ensure that companies do not file malicious reports," said Humaid Bin Deemas, assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour.
The ministry is modifying its policies and has drawn up stringent consequences for absconders and violating companies by issuing the decision, which seeks to curb this worsening problem.
Bin Deemas told Gulf News that the ministry is putting a mechanism in place to monitor these reports and to ensure that they are not misused.
"There have been 200,000 cases of workers absconding reported to the Ministry of Labour since 2000, which is a clear indicator of the size of the problem that we are facing today," said Bin Deemas, adding that both companies and workers are claiming that they are the victims.
The new decision is expected to regulate these reports and lay the foundation for ministry officials to assess who has really violated the rule.
According to the new decision the employer has to have a Dh3,000 bank guarantee for each report and has also to sign an undertaking at the ministry that he does not know where his employee is.
If an employee is caught after absconding, the employer has to pay for his ticket home.
However, the ministry will not accept a report about an absconding worker if the worker has not been able to report to work for valid reasons such as illness.
Three-month absence
The ministry will also reject an absconding report from an employer until three months have passed since the employee's absence from work.
"We want to protect the workers' rights by preventing the employer from filing an absconding report when the worker has filed a complaint against him at the ministry.
"We want to forward a message to the workers that if they voice their concerns to the ministry they will be protected by the law," said Bin Deemas.
The ministry issued a decision last week saying that workers who have terminated their contract for a valid reason must report it to the ministry within three months or they will face a one-year ban.
Bogus firms to be targeted
The new decision also stipulates penalties for companies that are designated as 'bogus' and are committing visa trade offences. The owner of the company will have to pay a Dh10,000 fine and all his transactions will be stopped while his other establishments will be downgraded to category C.
If the ministry discovers that a company is allowing the worker who is under its sponsorship to work or look for a job somewhere else or has not reported the worker for not working at the company within a three month period, it will consider the firm to be involved in visa trading.
The worker who is reported as asn absconder and is caught working on a 'bogus' firm's work permit will be permanently banned from working in the country. A worker found working for another company and not for the sponsor who issued him a work permit will get a one year ban.
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