Firm's partner registered as worker will be treated only as employee

ABU DHABI - An expatriate resident who has been registered with the Ministry of Labour as an employee of a firm but is also a partner will only be considered as an employee. An employee can be the owner or partner of another firm but cannot draw salary as such unless he obtains permission from the ministry, stated a Ministry of Labour directive on Sunday.

It also clarified that a non-Emirati partner of a firm who has registered as an employee with the same firm will not be considered as a partner.

An Arab worker on Sunday approached the open day committee at the ministry to get consent for shifting his sponsorship to a new company and exempting him from getting the nod from the first sponsor after a dispute arose with the owner of the firm, in which he is a partner. He was registered as a worker.

The committee looked into the complaint as a dispute between a worker and his employer and said it has nothing to do with the status of being a partner so long as there is a labour card and a contract signed by the two parties.

Saleh Al Jaberi, head of the Firms Unit at the ministry, said the Work Relations Department had examined a complaint by the firm owner who demanded cancellation of the residency of the worker who got all his rights as per the salary stated in the service contract. As his labour card was cancelled, the worker should leave the country after one month of that date, he said.

Khaleejtimes.com, 28 September 2010