SSC must for labourers

Labourers coming to work in the UAE will have to be at least high school certificate holders, Matar Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, announced yesterday.

He said this is mandatory for them to be issued work permits.

Al Tayer told Gulf News: "Under the new rules issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and in accordance with the UAE's policy to ensure that labourers are high school educated, the ministry will see to it that employers recruit staff with degrees, depending on their jobs. Even cleaners must at least hold high school certificates to get work permits."

He however clarified that labourers already in the country with residency status will not be asked to submit educational certificates when labour cards have to be renewed. If labourers do not violate their contracts, their labour cards will be renewed.

"Labourers with no education will gradually be asked to leave the country when their work finishes since they are not among those categories eligible for transfer of sponsorship."

Regarding the ministry's strategy to replace uneducated labourers, he said it will exclude those who have little education but occupy good positions and have a lot of experience or those working in rare areas after studying their cases. The country will benefit from their skills.

Saeed Nagi Al Salmani, UAE Government Relations Manager at Halliburton Limited Company, said: "The ministry should have taken this step a long time ago to achieve better control on the status of labourers.

"The ministry will encounter major difficulties in implementing the new policy because earlier it had opened the door to each and every labourer regardless of his qualifications. This caused the country major problems, especially the population imbalance. Though of late, the ministry is now on the right track."

Al Salmani, however, stressed that some clauses will be difficult to implement, such as cleaners or construction workers needing to hold high school certificates.

Edwin Rasquinha, Divisional Manager of Bobo Recruiting Agency in Dubai, pointed out that the new rules are still not clear. "They are not black and white. We are still in confusion about what's going on in the ministry and that has affected our work.

"Though our agency has not been affected badly, because we only recruit people with good education and high degrees, the whole market has been affected. We need more clarification from the government."

Haitham Adel, an engineer who owns a construction firm in Abu Dhabi, said: "It is going to be difficult for construction firms to find labourers with high school education. We can afford to pay each labourer between Dh500 and Dh700 a month. High school educated people will not come to the UAE and work for such a low salary.

"Besides, we have also to take into consideration that these labourers work 11 hours a day and their living conditions are poor. Will high school educated people be lured? It is going to be tough."