Dubai: A new smart system, which monitors how often a company pays its employees deserved wages and benefits, is in the pipeline as part of a number of initiatives by the Orange Team, a group of four government departments.
“We’re currently working on implementing the system,” Lt Col Dr Sultan Abdul Hamid Al Jamal, director of the human trafficking monitoring department at Dubai Police, said. “The system will give us an idea to what extent a company is paying its workers their deserved wages and benefits, thus curbing any instances of exploitation and disputes at the workplace. It’s all about tackling the problem preemptively, before it happens.”
Lt Col Al Jamal, who is also the coordinator of the Orange Team, said the team is working on six initiatives to improve work conditions for labourers and create a healthy work environment. The wage-monitoring smart system is one of the initiatives, titled ‘Give the Employee his Wages’.
The Orange Team was set up under the ‘City Makers’ initiative launched by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, in December 2014. The initiative aims to bring together teams from across different government entities to collaborate and develop innovative and integrated solutions.
The Orange Team is a joint effort of four government departments — Dubai Courts, Dubai Police, Permanent Committee for Labour Affairs (PCLA) and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. Its primary mission is to follow up on all the affairs of the expatriate workforce in the emirate.
“Another initiative will see the launch of a unified communication and unified settlement centre,” Lt Col Al Jamal said. “It will be divided into two parts. The first will see a toll-free number set up to receive complaints from labourers in the emirate. The second is a self-fix programme, where we remotely settle and resolve disputes. The initiative aims to shorten the period of litigation between worker and sponsor in case of any labour complaint, and expedite the procedures to help workers receive their dues. We will use modern methods of communication. The project details will be announced in the near future.”
Col Abdul Moneim Al Mudawi, General Coordinator of the Permanent Committee for Labour Affairs in Dubai, said the Orange Team is also working on a humanitarian initiative, titled ‘Dubai Al Khair’ (Dubai well-being). The initiative is aimed at financially distressed or ill workers and will be executed in cooperation with the Islamic Affairs Authority and Awqaf.
On Sunday, representatives of the Orange Team announced an initiative to set up the Workforce Training Institute, designed to educate expat employees in the emirate of the country’s laws and informing them of their rights and duties. The institute is currently in its preliminary stage of training Dubai’s blue collar workers, By 2018, it is set to train expat employees across all sectors in the emirate.
