Dubai: A company owner is being prosecuted for allegedly filing an absconding report against one of his workers with malicious intent, said a senior official from the Ministry of Labour.
According to Humaid Bin Deemas, Acting Director of the Ministry of Labour, the ministry's investigations suggested that the owner of the company also owned five allegedly fake companies with which he had sponsored a number of workers.
"The companies do not exist. It seems that man is registering such companies at the ministry in order to sponsor people for money," he said.
Bin Deemas said this was the first time the ministry had prosecuted a company owner for filing an absconding report with malicious intent. "Presenting the ministry with forged and false documents is a criminal act. Such action from the company owner is kind of cheating the government when he claims the worker absconded while the truth is not like that," Bin Deemas said.
The issue was uncovered when the wife of the worker reported the complaint against her husband.
"The woman made the complaint to the ministry saying her husband never absconded and was still at work," Bin Deemas said.
Afraid
He added that the ministry had contacted the owner who admitted filing a malicious absconding case against the worker.
"The Emirati company owner told the ministry he was afraid that the worker was going to run away to his country before paying a loan he took from his work," Bin Deemas said.
He said the accused worker was allowed to transfer his employment to another company.
"He transferred his sponsorship after being issued a new labour permit. The worker did not have to pay the ministry the sponsorship transferring fees. He was asked to pay the fees only for issuing the labour permit," he said.
