Emirates to keep sponsor system

The UAE has no plans to follow in the footsteps of Bahrain by scrapping the sponsorship system for expatriate workers, a senior figure at the Ministry of Labour has said.

Instead, the authorities saw the priority as adjusting existing labour laws to accommodate employees who had been made redundant but wanted to stay in the country and look for work.

The draft legislation to do this proposes a visa extension for those made redundant for more than the current one month. This measure has been submitted to the Cabinet but has yet to be passed.

Last week Majeed Alawi, Bahrain’s labour minister, announced that his country had activated a clause in the Labour Market Regulatory Authority to scrap the sponsorship system, making it the first country in the GCC to do so. He said that the move had been three years in the making. Since his announcement other GCC countries have been the focus of speculation as to whether they will also abolish the system.

However, a senior official involved with policy creation at the Ministry of Labour in Abu Dhabi said: “There is no plan or talk of applying that here at the moment as there are enough initiatives to work through.

“Nothing of that scale is being drawn up at the moment.”

He added: “If it is good in Bahrain it does not mean it would be good for us.”

Ministry of Labour sources at the offices in Dubai said there had been no dialogue with their Bahraini counterparts since the announcement.

They indicated that contacts between GCC countries regarding labour issues focused on the flow of workers from country to country – not issues affecting internal labour markets.

“Ongoing discussions such as improving the flow of Arab workers within Arab states were discussed at last month’s Arab Labour Forum in Jordan,” said one official in Dubai, adding that they were continuing with other Arab ministries.

The sponsorship arrangement serves as the legal basis for residency and employment for more than 4.1 million expatriates in the UAE. It is a complex system involving various government departments. Under it, an expatriate cannot change jobs without permission from his or her sponsor.

The former Deputy Minister of Labour believes abolishing the system would be difficult in the UAE, and during his tenure, the issue had never been discussed.

“There is absolutely no need to abolish the sponsorship system because so many government departments and external organisations are tied to it,” said Dr Khalid al Khazraji, who was also the director general of Tanmia, the body charged with empowering Emiratis to work in the private sector.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Human Capital and Sustainability Workshop, organised by the Emirates Environment Group, in Dubai yesterday, he said: “It took us 40 years to refine the system that works perfectly well, but what the ministry can do and is doing is to iron out the bad things and improve on the good things, which we are seeing all the time.

“What we have in place here is good enough and versatile enough, the ministry can work within its mandate,” added Dr al Khazraji, who is now the chairman of Al Kawthar Investment, an organisation that invests in infrastructure projects.

“But we can improve communication and work between various government departments to avoid unwanted scenarios and get better decision making.”