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The Ministry of Labour says it will continue confronting labour relationships of convenience.

“If an employer fails to get the labour card issued or renewed for an employee who is on the company visa, it is an indication that there is no real labour relationship between the two parties, an issue which the ministry will not tolerate or ignore,” said Humaid bin Demas Al Suwaidi, Ministry of Labour assistant undersecretary.

Al Suwaidi, who made the remarks at the open day held at the ministry’s office in Dubai on Thursday, said: “The ministry verifies the (labour) status of companies through a specialist committee which works on the basis of many standards and conditions.”

Those criteria included proof that the employer and employee are linked by labour relations, the establishment was actually practising its activities, those on its residence visas were a realistic number of employees, and whether other establishments owned by the same employer were committed to the law.

The ministry would examine the feasibility of slashing fines, specifically if the employer was not aware of the procedures required for obtaining or renewing the labour card.

“It is impossible to deal with flexibility with the applicant if it is proven, for example, that he has shut down the establishment for which there are residence visas for workers, or there is no real labour relationship with the employee.”

The ministry has taken stringent action against violators, such as imposing administrative fines or refusing to issue him new work permits until he settles and rectifies the status of his respective employees whose labour cards have not been issued, he said.

The penalty for delaying the renewal is levied after the lapse of 60 days from the date the employee entered the country or allowed the card to expire. The fine is Dh1,000 for each month or part-month delay, he said.

“The above mentioned measures constitute part of the efforts aimed at curbing bogus labour relations and confronting them by increasing the cost for the violating employees, especially those who have fictitious establishments,” he said. If a company shuts down without settlement of the status of their employees, a fine of Dh50,000 will be slapped on the employer for each employee found working with another employer, and the files will be handed over to the public prosecution.

The ministry referred 297 establishments to the public prosecution last year after they proved to have closed down with employees still on their sponsorship.

Al Suwaidi praised the employers who were committed to issuing and renewing labour cards at the scheduled times, and which stood at 950,000.

He also warned employees that they should be working for the same company as stated on their labour cards or visas, and should report to the Ministry of Labour if amendments were required to be made. This would ensure that they would not face strict action by the ministry, he warned.