Business is booming in the UAE and many international companies have branches or headquarters in the country, given its strategic geopolitical location, healthy infrastructure and business-friendly regulations. One key aspect in establishing the right conditions to trade is getting the right team together. This often means recruiting internationally.
Manual labour is known locally as ‘manpower supply’ and can be a critical component for companies such as those doing construction or maintenance work. There are certain regulations that help to fasttrack such recruitment and reduce impediments to getting business activity underway and achieving results for yourself and your clients.
There are similar provisions for employing other professionals for different business sectors. Read the below to get a sense of what the Ministry of Labour provisions require in order for you to make use of these regulations.
LABOR BROKERAGE OFFICE SERVICES
Activity Group: Labor Supply & employment agency
License Type: Professional
Activity Description: Includes recruitment offices specialized in bringing in manpower for companies, establishments and individuals and assuming necessary procedures for having their visas issued.
MINISTRY OF LABOR SERVICE FEES:
- Application for issuing a brokerage agency license AED 50,000 – Bank guarantee AED 300,000.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET BY THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR:
- In case of natural person, the applicant must be 21 and above with full capacity and be a UAE national. All company or companies’ partners who are applying for this license must be UAE national.
- The natural person or any partners in corporate bodies shall not be convicted of a crime of dishonesty, breach of trust, a crime of human trafficking or any of those crimes stipulated in the law regulating labor relations or its implementing decrees. Unless he/she is rehabilitated after the issuance of a judgment restricting his/her freedom or after the lapse of one year from the date of issuing a judgment imposing a fine on him/her.
- Throughout the license’s validity period, the applicant shall submit to the Ministry a bank guarantee which value shall not be less than three hundred thousand dirhams in case of the brokerage activities, and one million dirhams in case of temporary recruitment activities. The bank guarantee must be renewed automatically. The Ministry may allocate all or some of this guarantee, as prescribed in this article, to pay any amounts that the agency shall pay due to its failure to perform the obligations under the provisions of this law and to comply with instructions and decrees issued thereunder.
- The applicant shall have a head office with a clear address, at which the agency will carry on its activities. Such head office shall be licensed for that purpose and shall satisfy those standards specified by the executive instructions and procedures issued under this decree. The agency may not practice its activity except through such head office.
- The applicant shall submit a written undertaking that no change, by either addition or withdrawal, will be made to partners, except after obtaining a written consent from the Ministry.
- The agency shall hire an adequate number of administrative employees and supervisors who have suitable experience in their field of work.
- An agency manager must be assigned who is a UAE national and with a high school degree at least. Natural persons who apply for license are an exception, as he/she can be the agency manager, as long as there is a high school degree and registered as a manager in the Ministry of Labour and the General Pensions Authority or Abu Dhabi Pensions Fund.
- The agency authorized signatory must fulfill the same conditions of the agency manager.
- The applicant shall pay the legally prescribed fees once the license to practice the requested activity is initially approved.
- The applicant shall not own or have a share in an establishment which frequently failed to pay the workers’ wages in accordance with the terms and conditions set by the Ministry, have fictitious establishments or materially breach the prescribed conditions of labor housing.
ON-DEMAND LABOUR SUPPLY (TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT)
Activity Group: Labour Supply & employment agency
License Type: Professional
Activity Description: Includes specialized firms engaged in supplying others with different professionals or domestic workers on temporary basis.
MINISTRY OF LABOR SERVICE FEES:
- Application for issuing a brokerage agency license AED 300,000 – Bank guarantee AED 1000,000.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET BY THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR
- In case of natural person, the applicant must be 21 and above with full capacity and be a UAE national. All company or companies’ partners who are applying for this license must be UAE national.
- The natural person or any partners in corporate bodies shall not be convicted of a crime of dishonesty, breach of trust, a crime of human trafficking or any of those crimes stipulated in the law regulating labor relations or its implementing decrees. Unless he/she is rehabilitated after the issuance of a judgment restricting his/her freedom or after the lapse of one year from the date of issuing a judgment imposing a fine on him/her.
- Throughout the license’s validity period, the applicant shall submit to the Ministry a bank guarantee which value shall not be less than three hundred thousand dirhams in case of the brokerage activities, and one million dirhams in case of temporary recruitment activities. The bank guarantee must be renewed automatically. The Ministry may allocate all or some of this guarantee, as prescribed in this article, to pay any amounts that the agency shall pay due to its failure to perform the obligations under the provisions of this law and to comply with instructions and decrees issued there under.
- The applicant shall have a head office with a clear address, at which the agency will carry on its activities. Such head office shall be licensed for that purpose and shall satisfy those standards specified by the executive instructions and procedures issued under this decree. The agency may not practice its activity except through such head office.
- The applicant shall submit a written undertaking that no change, by either addition or withdrawal, will be made to partners, except after obtaining a written consent from the Ministry.
- The agency shall hire an adequate number of administrative employees and supervisors who have suitable experience in their field of work.
- An agency manager must be assigned who is a UAE national and with a high school degree at least. Natural persons who apply for license are an exception, as he/she can be the agency manager, as long as there is a high school degree and registered as a manager in the Ministry of Labour and the General Pensions Authority or Abu Dhabi Pensions Fund.
- The agency authorized signatory must fulfill the same conditions of the agency manager.
- The applicant shall pay the legally prescribed fees once the license to practice the requested activity is initially approved.
- The applicant shall not own or have a share in an establishment which frequently failed to pay the workers’ wages in accordance with the terms and conditions set by the Ministry, have fictitious establishments or materially breach the prescribed conditions of labour housing.
