Dubai: The Ministry of Labour has rejected a sponsor's appeal to remove his company from the blacklist for his failure to report 24 workers who left the job 10 years ago.

At the ministry's open day yesterday, the owner of a company in Dubai said he was reluctant to take the necessary measures because he travels frequently outside the country and had no time to inform the authorities about the workers.

He added that this also prevented him from following up on his business here.

The owner added that he did not follow up on the absconding workers with the ministry but sought exemption from the payment of bank guarantees to the ministry.

Seeking solutions

He said that he would need to use the bank guarantee money to file the absconding cases against the 24 workers and thereby would be able to amend the status of his company here.

He said that he wanted the ministry to remove the name of his company from the blacklist for labour card violations.

The labour committee at the ministry rejected the owner's request, asserting that the applicant may in no case be exempt from paying the bank guarantee.

Officials said that the company must pay the bank guarantee to the ministry at the rate of Dh3,000 for each worker in the company.

The official added that companies who will be exempt from paying the bank guarantee are only the ones whose balance of bank guarantee paid is more than the amount decided by the ministry.

The official said that the owner's failure to report his missing employees over the past years gave an impression that this company was fake.

Monitoring

Aisha Bilharfiya, Director of the Department of Labour Offices, urged employers to monitor their companies and their employees constantly, especially to avoid the actions taken against their firms for violating the laws and the rules of the ministry.

Companies in a dilemma

A number of requests were made during the ministry of labour's Open Day — where employers blamed a lack of awareness about rules — to settle fines imposed on companies until the end of last year.

Business owners asked the ministry to reduce the fines imposed on them for their failure to pay the same during the grace period provided earlier.

A committee, at the ministry, said that it would take the decisions — on whether or not to approve the reduction of the fines — based on several criteria.

According to Abdul Wahab Eisa, an expert at the Ministry of Labour, owners of companies with fines would have benefited if they had settled their fines by the end of December, as they would have avoided paying an increased amount in fines.

According to the new system, Dh1,000 will be charged for each month of delay in the renewal of labour cards.