Abu Dhabi: (WAM): The Ministry of Labour has referred 479 firms to public prosecutors for allegedly breaking UAE labour laws.
The legal action follows several inspection sweeps conducted by the ministry last year.
Maher Al Obaid, Assistant Undersecretary for Inspectional Affairs, spoke on Wednesday during a press conference which was held at the Ministry headquarters in Abu Dhabi to announce the department’s results for 2014.
“The inspection sector in the Ministry of Labour is following a strategic plan with two key points: firstly, control the labour market and, secondly, educate and guide labour parties about their rights and duties. This embodies the ministry’s strategy to create a stable labour market and a productive workforce to promote a competitive knowledge-based economy that revolves around UAE citizens,” he said.
He explained that inspectors have carried out over 288,670 inspections to note down faults within the private sector and assure their commitment to providing a safe workplace, housing for labourers that matches required standards and abiding by occupational health and safety measures.
“Around 17,217 practices went against the law, according to last year’s reports, and the right legal procedures were undertaken against each violation.”
He added, “Some of the measures taken against violating practices were just warnings as the offence was not considered serious, such as misleading overtime calculations, while 479 facilities were referred to the Public Prosecution to take the necessary actions against them.”
He noted that the ministry, following the inspection visits carried out last year, refused to service 2,050 facilities for violating labour laws repetitively, other than imposing fines on 142 other facilities for breaking labour laws, pointing out that about 2,280 facilities have resolved violations with the ministry over the past year.
With regard to inspectional visits related to work sites and housing environments, Al Obaid said: “A total of 8,888 visits were carried out to labour camps to find out minor offences that did not amount to major risks to the health and safety of workers, yet the ministry filed warnings to fix such irregularities. On the other hand, the ministry took decisions to stop services to some facilities found with major faults, plus fining them, while others faced administrative fines for breaking the law.”
“A total of 4,614 inspectional visits were carried out to work sites nationally to make sure that firms follow occupational health and safety measures, and these found that the vast majority of companies met the requirements, while other facilities were warned and urged to follow those measures; however, 1,877 inspectional visits were to follow-up on work injury cases,” Al Obed said.
The inspection sector in the Ministry of Labour carried out, in partnership with the Ministry of the Interior, more than 44,400 daily visits to follow up on the employment situation within facilities.
