Smart Inspection System to prioritise inspections

Abu Dhabi: A Smart Inspection System has been launched to prioritise the Ministry of Labour’s inspections, it was announced today.

The system, announced as part of Innovation Week, will sort out labour-related disputes by filtering them into five risk categories and hence assist the ministry’s inspection officers in placing their focus on the right area.

Category five relates to very high risk and category one is considered low risk. At the time of the announcement the system had filtered the disputes into 22,307 which had to be inspected. Of these, 9,043 cases were recorded as high risk.

“The Intelligent inspection system analyses the data provided based on 13 specific criteria, classifies them into five levels and then prioritises follow-up through a team of inspectors that use the smart inspection devices to ensure speed and accuracy while performing tasks,” Maher Al Obad, assistant undersecretary of Inspectional Affairs, said.

Speaking to Gulf News, Al Obad said; “We have 369,880 establishments registered with the ministry, over four million people to review and only 400 inspection officers.” He pointed out that it was not feasible or efficient to inspect every single organisation.

“The system will help to put the focus on the 22,307 facilities that have been flagged up in the system,” he added.

Looking to the future Al Obad said, “I want to see the positive impact that the system is going to have on our work.”

The risk criteria which are examined by the system include high numbers of employee absences or escapes, labour complaints, a large number of workers on leave, number of expired labour cards, salary delays, avoiding Wage Protection System registration, number of mission permits, part-time permits, recruitment companies, expired trade licences, low wages and bank guarantees deducted.

The project was implemented at the end of 2014 and has so far resulted in 30,056 inspections, while 12,213 facilities have been removed from the high- risk list after follow-up by the ministry.