6-month grace period to settle labour card fines

Employers who have failed to issue or renew electronic labour cards for their employees will have to pay Dh1,000 for each labour card. Abu Dhabi - Starting today, the federal Ministry of Labour (MoL) will implement the UAE’s Cabinet decision on the six-month grace period for settling all electronic labour cards fines by paying only Dh1,000 per fine instead of the cumulative amount. The decision will remain effective until the end of June 2015. Employers who have failed to issue or renew electronic labour cards for their employees will have to pay this maximum amount for each labour card that has not been issued or renewed until the end of December 2014. The ministry will also begin the implementation of new administrative fines, approved recently by the Ministers Cabinet, including a Dh500 fine for not signing an electronic agreement with the employees within 60 days from their arrival in the country or the amendment of their residency status. Furthermore, a fine of Dh500 will be imposed on firms that do not apply for, or renew electronic labour cards within 60 days from the date of signing contracts. Imposing the two fines will be in effect from March 5. Humaid bin Deemas, MoL’s Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs, called up on all employers to take advantage of the time limit and speed up the payments of those fines by the end of February so as to avoid the Dh500 fine per month in case of non-compliance. He also urged company owners to check the electronic labour permits conditions regularly through ‘e-netwasal’ service on the ministry’s website (www.mol.gov.ae) or through the MoL mobile app which could be downloaded from Apple Store, Google Play in addition and BlackBerry World. The app is in both Arabic and English. Employers can also use the Tas’heel service centres across the UAE or the labour offices to check if there are any fines issued against their firms. MoL said that around 100,000 fines were issued against 40,000 facilities and that the total amount was reduced, for the grace period, to Dh100 million from around Dh2.8 billion. - Khaleejtimes.com