Obligating “recruitment offices” to extend the warranty period for the assistant worker to two years

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has begun implementing new procedures requiring recruitment offices to extend the support worker’s warranty period for two years, in accordance with specific controls, in implementation of a decision issued by the Cabinet regarding the executive regulations of the Support Workers Law, which recently entered into force.

Assistant Undersecretary for Domestic Workers Affairs, Khalil Khoury, stressed that offices licensed to mediate in recruiting or temporarily employing domestic workers, whether they are “Tadbeer” service centers or other offices that do not bear the “Tadbeer” mark, are obligated to refund all or part of the recruitment costs to the employer according to the remaining period of the employment contract.

Khoury explained that the full cost of recruitment will be refunded to the employer or another worker will be provided according to the latter’s wishes in the event of any of four cases occurring during the first six months of the contract, which is the (probationary period), as these cases include the worker terminating the contract without a legitimate reason, leaving work without an acceptable reason, or the worker’s lack of health fitness, as well as his inability to perform his work duties in the required and agreed upon manner.

He said that a partial refund of the recruitment costs would be made in the event of two cases occurring during the post-probationary period and until the expiry date of the two-year contract, where the two cases include the worker terminating the contract after the probationary period without a legitimate reason or leaving work after the probationary period without an acceptable reason, and these amounts are calculated according to the remaining period of the contract in months from the total recruitment cost.

He gave an example of this by referring to an employer paying 15 thousand dirhams to an office in exchange for bringing in a support worker, and this worker terminated the contract or left the job after 15 months of the two-year contract period. The employer has the right to recover 5625 dirhams for the remaining nine months of the contract.

Khoury pointed out that recruitment offices are obligated to return the amounts to the employer within a period not exceeding one month from the date of returning the worker to the recruitment office or reporting that he has left work.

He explained that “recruitment offices will be exempted from returning the amounts to the employer if the latter is the one who specified the worker he wants to recruit or employ by name, and the office concerned is implementing the employer’s will in this choice.”

He said that the new procedures come within the framework of an integrated system of standards and controls aimed at regulating the work of recruitment offices, ensuring that they provide distinguished services to clients, thus contributing to reducing any negative practices that may arise in the work relationship between the two parties and cause harm to employers, especially with regard to the assistant worker leaving the job.

He stressed the importance of these procedures, based on the fact that they preserve the financial rights of employers throughout the period of the employment contract, under which the worker obtains residency in the country for two years. This is after recruitment offices provided guarantees to employers for a period of three months during the period before the issuance of the Federal Law on Support Service Workers, which extended the guarantee period to six months before the executive regulations of the law extended it to two years, which guarantees the financial rights of the employer in accordance with the procedures, controls and standards referred to.

He added that the implementation of the aforementioned procedures comes in parallel with a set of standards stipulated in the executive regulations, which will provide trained and qualified support workers, especially through current recruitment offices that do not carry the “Tadbeer” mark, and which will be closed if their status is not adjusted in accordance with the controls and conditions on the basis of which “Tadbeer” service centers are licensed, which provide distinguished services that meet the needs and requirements of employers and families, under a partnership between the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and the private sector, which manages these centers with national cadres and under the supervision of the Ministry.

Khoury announced that 32 “Tadbeer” service centers currently provide domestic labor services across the country, while 32 other centers will be opened by the end of this year in various emirates of the country, distributed across several geographical regions.

He said, “The Ministry, in partnership with the private sector, has succeeded in setting ceilings for the cost of recruiting and employing domestic workers, through the packages offered by the service centres (Tadbeer), which are intended to meet the needs and aspirations of customers, whom we always seek to make happy by providing them with distinguished services.”

4 packages

The “Tadbeer” centers provide their services through four packages with specific price ceilings for each package. The first package, which is the “Traditional Package,” provides the service of bringing in a domestic worker from outside the country who resides with the employer during the contract period, which lasts for two years, while the second package, which is the “Temporary Package,” provides the domestic worker registered with the “Tadbeer” service center to work for a contractual period during which the worker is not allowed to move as a domestic worker residing under the sponsorship of the employer.

The third package, the (trial package), provides the assistant worker registered with the center to work for a contractual period of six months, after which he is allowed to move as a resident assistant worker registered in the employer’s file in the event of the approval of the concerned parties, while the fourth package, the (flexible package), provides the assistant worker registered with the “Tadbeer” service center to work by the (hour, day, week, month, etc.) system.

32

“Tadbeer” Center will be

Its opening,

By the end of the year

Current, in

Different emirates of the country.