ABU DHABI 19 June 2019: Pakistani workers coming to work in the UAE will sign an ‘Employment Job Offer’ before departure from their home country, according to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), reached between Pakistan and the UAE.
MoUs have also been signed with Vietnam and Nepal.
According to the agreement, an Employment Job Offer will be signed by both parties prior to the individual’s departure from Pakistan, to ensure a legal and risk-free working environment for the Pakistani workforce upon arrival to the UAE.
The job offer will clearly stipulate the rights and obligations of both the employee and the employer.
The job offer will also provide a basis for the Employment Contract to be registered in the UAE, a statement by the Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi explained to Wam. Pakistan has signed the MoU with the UAE to “foster cooperation in the labour and human resources sector”, it added.
The MoU aims to “institutionalise the collaborative administration of contractual employment of Pakistani workers in the UAE, through use of information technology, the exchange of information and continuing studies in the area of labour,” the Embassy noted.
Under the MoU, Pakistan and the UAE Governments have decided to undertake joint collaborative programmes and activities, including pre-departure and post-arrival educational programmes in pursuit of the objective of improving the administration of the contract employment cycle.
Dispute Resolution
The sixth Article of the MoU deals with dispute resolution between the employee and employer. As per the MoU, in case no amicable settlement is reached within six weeks of the complaint filed by the complainant, the complaint will be referred to the judicial authorities.
The two Governments have also agreed to establish a Joint Committee to implement this MoU. The Committee will meet regularly to monitor and evaluate/assess the implementation of this MoU.
This MoU is an important step forward in streamlining the contractual employment regime for Pakistani workers and protect their rights through institutionalised mechanisms, the Embassy statement concluded.
The MoU was signed by Tahir Hussain Andrabi, Acting Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, and Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, on the margins of the ongoing 108th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, in the presence of senior officials of both countries.
Commenting on the signing, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Imran Khan on Overseas Pakistanis, Zulfikar Bukhari, thanked the UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation for its support, via his Twitter account, where he expressed his hopes that the MoU will “ease [the] remittances process” and “evolve a mechanism for early resolution of disputes with employers/providing legal assistance”.
