Abu Dhabi: Companies failing to pay salaries for 30 days will be referred to court, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation said on Tuesday.
Also, in a decree issued on Tuesday, the ministry said companies with more than 100 workers must pay workers’ wages within 10 days of the specified date or they will not be granted any new worker permits.
The decision was announced by Saqr Ghobash, UAE Minister for Human Resources and Emiratisation. In a statement, he clarified that new worker permits submitted 16 days after an instance of salary non-payment will be denied.
The new decree will come into effect from October.
This marks a change from the one-month period previously granted by the ministry to all companies to pay delayed wages.
A number of additional penalties have also been announced by the ministry to encourage large companies to pay workers in a timely manner.
For instance, a firm that fails to pay its workers for a whole month will be referred to the judicial authorities, and there will be a halt on transactions with any other companies owned by the same person. The violating individual will also be unable to register any new companies. In addition, the ministry will encash the company’s bank guarantee after the first month of delayed wages, and also downgrade its rating to Categoy 3. This means that the company will have to pay higher processing fees for all ministry transactions, a ministry representative told Gulf News.
“If a large firm fails to pay salaries for 60 days, then administrative fines will be added,” Ghobash said.
These are calculated at Dh5,000 for each worker who is not paid for 60 days, up to a maximum of Dh50,000 for a firm that fails to pay multiple workers for over two months.
The ban on new worker permits will immediately be lifted for a company that pays all wages within the first 30 days. But a 60-day ban will be in place for a company that delays salary payment for more than 60 days.
In addition, a company that is seen to regularly delay paying its workers will have its period of worker permit bans doubled (for example, 120 days instead of 60 days if the firm delays payment for more than 60 days).
Smaller companies that employ less than 100 workers will also be held to more rigorous salary payment standards.
As was the case in the past, a ban on work permits will be implemented after a month, and the company will be referred to the courts if the wages remain unpaid for 60 days. However, if a smaller company repeatedly fails to pay workers on time and two or more such instances are recorded in a year, the firm will have to pay administrative fines similar to those slapped on large companies, ie, Dh5,000 per worker with delayed wages.
The ministry statement also reiterated that it will not allow transactions for any companies that do not register with its Wage Protection System.
Delayed wages are a common complaint, but the ministry has taken steps to reduce such violations. As reported by Gulf News, it intervened earlier this month to rescue around 150 workers who were not paid for more than six months by an electromechanical company in Abu Dhabi emirate’s Al Ruwais area. The ministry encashed the company’s bank guarantee and offered the workers a chance to either return home or look for other work in the UAE.
