Ladies' salon specialists not allowed to massage men

Dubai: Prosecutors have sent out a strict warning to owners of women’s salons and spas against flouting laws and making women specialists work as masseuses in male massage parlours.

It is against the UAE Labour Law to make women, who are hired to work as hairstylists, manicurists, and pedicurists or nail specialists in ladies’ salons and spas, to work as masseuses in massage parlours for men, warned Senior Chief Prosecutor Ali Humaid Bin Khatem, Head of the Naturalisation and Residency Prosecution (NRP).

“This is a new criminal technique that law enforcement officers and labour inspectors have discovered recently during surprise raids to different ladies’ spas and salons. When salon specialists are hired to work in salons, then that’s where they should work… if they are found to be massaging males in massage parlours, then that’s a clear violation of ministerial resolution No 52 of 1989. It will still be deemed a crime even if the salon and the massage parlour belong to the same owner,” Bin Khatem said on Tuesday.

His comments came following what he described as two unprecedented and first-of-their-kind criminal cases in which the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Misdemeanours Court fined two owners of different salons Dh30,000 each for committing the aforementioned crime.

A businessman, who owns a ladies’ salon and a males’ massage parlour, was fined Dh30,000 for allowing three specialists [who were hired to work in the salon] massage men in the parlour.

During a surprise inspection visit to the parlour, inspectors discovered that three women had been flouting the labour law by carrying out duties different from those mentioned on their labour permits.

“When the women were questioned at the Ministry of Labour, they claimed that the salon owner hired them to work as hairstylists, manicurists and nail specialists. Later on he moved them to massage men at the parlour that he owns," said the NRP head.

"Thereafter the businessman was referred to the Naturalisation and Residency Prosecution. During interrogation, he admitted that he issued labour permits for the trio to work as specialists in his salon and he moved them to the parlour when the business demand increased there. Prosecutors accused him of hiring employees to work in jobs different from what they were initially permitted to do. The court fined him Dh30,000,” the official added.

In another case, a businesswoman, who owns a beauty salon, was fined Dh30,000 for flouting the ministerial resolution No 52 of 1989 and committing a similar crime.

During a surprise raid at the businesswoman’s salon, three women were found to be massaging men although their work permits allowed them to work as salon specialists only.

“Such illegal practices will not be left without prosecution. Those are serious and new crimes that law enforcement officers discovered and that prosecutors have interrogated. We will do whatever it takes to curtail and combat such crimes and criminals. Dubai’s Attorney General Essam Eisa Al Humaidan has instructed us to cooperate with labour officials to enforce the law and constantly protect labourers’ rights,” Bin Khatem said.