The reduction caused financial and administrative burdens for the employer

Parliamentary recommendation to extend work permits to 3 years

Parliamentary recommendations included not collecting additional fees for the work permit from the new employer. Archival

A parliamentary report prepared by the Financial, Economic and Industrial Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council on the topic of "The impact of legislation regulating labor market activities on economic variables in the country" confirmed that reducing the duration of work permits issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation to two years caused financial and administrative burdens that harmed the employer, recommending amending the duration of work permits to become three years instead of two years.

The report, which is being discussed by the members of the Council during its session scheduled to be held today, also recommended increasing the period of notification of the worker to the employer, for leaving work, to become three months instead of (14) days according to the employment contract during the trial period, while revealing that the number of small and medium enterprises in the country decreased by more than (50%) according to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Economy during the current year, which led to a decrease in the contribution of these companies to the GDP in the country.

In detail, the Federal National Council will hold, today, its tenth session of the fourth ordinary session of the 17th legislative term, under the chairmanship of the Speaker of the Council, Saqr Ghobash, to discuss the topic of "the impact of legislation regulating labor market activities on economic variables in the country", and members of the Council address five parliamentary questions to government representatives, including two questions to Lieutenant General His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, the first of the Second Deputy Speaker of the Council, Naema Abdullah Al-Sharhan, on «delivery bicycles requests", and the second from member Hamid Ali Alabbar, about "young drug users citizens".

While two other members address two questions to the Minister of Health and Prevention and Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs, Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Owais, the first from member Obaid Khalfan Al-Salami, on "reducing cancer rates", the second from member Dr. Hind Humaid bin Aleeli, on "the mechanism for evaluating treatment institutions outside the country to which patients are sent", and finally member Ahmed Abdullah Al-Shehhi, a question to the Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, Dr. Abdulrahman bin Abdulmanan Al Awar, about "recruiting domestic workers" Assistance with a tourist visa."

During the session, the members of the Council will discuss a parliamentary report prepared by the Financial, Economic and Industrial Affairs Committee of the Council, on the topic of "the impact of legislation regulating labor market activities on economic variables in the country", which dealt with the topic from two main axes, the first is the impact of the law in supporting economic establishments in the country, and achieving a balance between stakeholders. The second is the impact of legislation regulating labor market activities on the country's future objectives and strategies and the UAE Vision 2071, including a number of observations, proposals and recommendations.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by Emirates Today, indicated that the Financial, Economic and Industrial Affairs Committee held several meetings to study the general topic, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Dubai, during which it reviewed many studies and research papers prepared on the subject, and held a number of meetings with the concerned authorities, and concluded in its study to a number of observations and basic results in the axis on the impact of the law in supporting economic establishments in the country, and achieving a balance between stakeholders, the most important of which is that reducing the duration of Work permits for two years led to many financial and administrative burdens, which resulted in harm to the employer, as well as that the notice period prescribed for the termination of the employment contract during the probationary period of (14) days at a minimum from the date specified for the termination of the experiment, is considered an insufficient period for the employer, which led to the lack of balance between the interests of the contracting parties and the instability of small and medium enterprises and thus their failure to achieve the targeted economic growth.

With regard to the second axis (the impact of legislation regulating labor market activities on the objectives and future strategies of the state and the UAE Vision 2071), the report stated that the committee reached a number of observations and results, the most important of which is that the number of small and medium enterprises in the country decreased by more than 50%, as their number was 350,2020 companies in mid-122, and then decreased to 2023,<> companies, according to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Economy in <>, which led to a decrease in the contribution of the small and medium enterprises sector. in the country's GDP.

The report stated that the observations also included that the provision of preferential benefits and tax exemptions for foreign investments in competing foreign markets will negatively affect the target rates to attract foreign investments to the state market, in addition to that the challenges facing national entrepreneurs in many areas (such as the retirement system, federal fees and tariffs for some basic services, and the rapid change of laws) led to an increase in financial burdens on them, which negatively affected the growth of their projects.

The report indicated that the committee reached a number of parliamentary recommendations, based on the observations and conclusions it monitored, related to the legislative and executive frameworks, as the recommendations on the legislative framework included two aspects, the first is related to considering the amendment of Federal Decree Law No. (33) of 2021 regarding the regulation of labor relations, its amendments, its executive regulations, and legal regulations, as it included "amending the duration of work permits to be three years instead of two years to reduce financial costs, and increasing the period of notification of the worker to the employer to become from one month to three months." Instead of 14 days according to the employment contract during the probation period, and the requirement to complete a period of one year in the event that the worker wishes to transfer to another employer after the end of the probation period (this condition is canceled if the employer agrees to transfer the worker), and not obliging the employer to bear the expenses of the worker's return to his recruitment or any other place that the parties have agreed upon if the worker commits a mistake or other cases of dismissal of the worker without warning or in the event of interruption from Work, and the development of a mechanism to notify the employer to enable him to know the return of the worker to the state and increase the period of compensation of the employer to six months from the end of the employment contract.

The second aspect of the legislative recommendations included "considering the amendment of Federal Decree-Law No. (13) of 2022 regarding unemployment insurance, to include temporary contracts for the category of citizens working in the private sector."

According to the report, the parliamentary recommendations of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation included "not collecting additional fees for the work permit from the new employer when the worker moves to another establishment, coordinating with the General Pension and Social Security Authority on finding a mechanism to encourage entrepreneurs to register in the retirement system by reducing the cost of participation fees for national entrepreneurs, reconsidering raising the maximum salary of the contribution account currently in force (50,<> dirhams in the private sector), and taking into account the diversity of sector activities." working in the country during the issuance of the decision of the Council of Ministers regarding the reduction of working hours for the month of Ramadan».

The parliamentary recommendations of the Ministry of Economy also included "developing a specific mechanism for coordination with the concerned authorities to link and unify licensing systems in the various emirates (such as a unified government services portal), finding a mechanism for the ministry to receive the visions of stakeholders before preparing legislation related to them to ensure that they are prepared according to the realistic conditions in the economy, studying draft laws, policies and strategies to ensure that they are commensurate with economic activities in the country and not applying them until after a sufficient transitional period, and setting controls and requirements for foreign direct investment so that It includes the conditions of its access to the state markets and the facilities granted to it to be of added local value to the state's economy.

• 50% decrease in the number of SMEs in the country.

Training citizens in «private»

The Financial, Economic and Industrial Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council (FNC) confirmed that the lack of training and qualification of nationals in the private sector led to their inability to compete in the labor market with foreign workers, in addition to their lack of qualification to meet the requirements of the state and its strategic objectives.