WHILE replying to a question today in Lok
Sabha, the Minister of Overseas Indian Affair, Mr Vayalar Ravi, said that
as many as 1.5 mn Indians work in UAE.The
UAE Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs have agreed
to jointly deploy an electronic contract registration and validation system
that ensures:
• Full transparency of the contract terms;
• Disclosure of such terms to the prospective worker and securing the worker’s
informed consent to the same terms prior to being deployed to the UAE;
• Approval by the concerned Indian government agencies of the terms of the
contract for the purpose of granting emigration clearance to the prospective
worker, and
• Non-substitution of any of the agreed-to terms of employment in the final
and official contract document to be signed by the worker and the employer
after the former’s arrival in the UAE.
The protocol mandates the informed consent and approval of the worker, the
employer and the competent Indian authorities, of the full terms of the work
contract prior to the worker’s deployment to the UAE. The contract terms are,
in turn, captured in the contract document that is eventually signed by the
worker and employer in the UAE and duly registered with the Ministry of Labour.
The new system is activated by an online application by a UAE employer for
the granting of work permits that requires disclosure of the key terms of the
employment offer. The UAE (Ministry of Labour) processes the application and
provides access to the electronic record to Indian government- accredited recruitment
agencies in India that are then required to obtain the worker’s attested consent.
A duly designated Indian government agency also accesses the record for the
purpose of reviewing the terms of the employment and granting an emigration
clearance accordingly. This is followed by the registration of the electronic
contract and the issuance of the work permit by the UAE Ministry of Labour.
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