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A friend of mine runs a company (non free zone) and has been having a rough time with his local sponsor.

He wants to get all his staff off the sponsors visa and onto a freezone visa since he's set up a new company there. But the problem is that the sponsor hadnt applied for labour cards for 7 of these employees resulting in huge accumulated fines (thats what the sponsor tells him)

Is there anyway he can approach the ministry directly to cancel these visa's and sort this penalty issue out or does anyone know a legal eagle who specialises in such cases?

Any help appreciated

KeithL wrote:A friend of mine runs a company (non free zone) and has been having a rough time with his local sponsor.

He wants to get all his staff off the sponsors visa and onto a freezone visa since he's set up a new company there. But the problem is that the sponsor hadnt applied for labour cards for 7 of these employees resulting in huge accumulated fines (thats what the sponsor tells him)

Is there anyway he can approach the ministry directly to cancel these visa's and sort this penalty issue out or does anyone know a legal eagle who specialises in such cases?

Any help appreciated

Surely in his position your friend would know whether his employees had been issued with labour cards or not?

Surely the staff would know if they have labour cards or not?

One issue is that if the staff are working illegally, they will be arrested (possibly jailed) and then deported if the labour department becomes involved.

The first thing would be to ascertain the visa and residency status of all the employees before considering any further action/ steps ...

Secondly, check the legal status of the company, if the sponsor has let the companys registration lapse this could be the cause of his hessitation

Thanks for your reply Dbxsoul

All the staff have valid residence visas and the trade license is valid until 2009.

The question is about Labour Cards which were not applied for by the local sponsor.

how long have they been in the country and without labour cards?
according to law they were supposed to have been issued thier labour cards within 30 days of entry into the UAE.

it seems very strange as the labour and immigration processes are normally run in tandum and completed at the same time.

it may be that he is not allowed to take one any more employees (on his company labour certificate) in terms of the type and restrictions placed on his business.

how do the staff avoid being picked up by the police or labour inspectors?

dbxsoul wrote:how long have they been in the country and without labour cards?
according to law they were supposed to have been issued thier labour cards within 30 days of entry into the UAE.

it seems very strange as the labour and immigration processes are normally run in tandum and completed at the same time.

it may be that he is not allowed to take one any more employees (on his company labour certificate) in terms of the type and restrictions placed on his business.

how do the staff avoid being picked up by the police or labour inspectors?

well i worked without labout card in Dubai for 3 months cos the visit visa was changed to residence and it took 3 months. Thanks to the efficiency of the local ppl.

They have been without Labour Cards since the date they were issued their residence visa's (approx 2 years)

and they avoid being arrested by carrying copies of their passport and visa's

it may be that he is not allowed to take one any more employees (on his company labour certificate) in terms of the type and restrictions placed on his business

Do you think thats the case? They all have visa's so i dont think its a question of visa allocation to the sponsor

Could be he just didn't want to fork out for the labour deposits, else he is in the labour departments "black book" i.e. Category C employer or worse.

thinking about things.... although I WOULD suggest that one of them does confer with the department of labour first. I checked and the sponsor was supposed to have got labour approval prior to the issuing of the visa's - which I assume he did do.

Technically, besides the fact they are working illegally. They are not legally employed and as such cannot incur the labour ban, and the sponsor cannot ask for one to be imposed. The residency ban has dropped away so that’s not an issue either... there is no contract to be broken... Any implied contract may also be invalidated as the sponsor has failed to provide them with legal employment.

The downsides are:

a) The sponsor could argue that your friend never completed the paperwork for him to sign and as he was the manager he should have been responsible for ensuring it was done – effectively dropping him in the sh1t.

b) The labour department arrests, jails and deports everyone for working illegally. They could argue that there has recently been an amnesty and the employees should have stated their case then.

An option is:

The staff could inform the sponsor that if he does not transfer them off of his residency they are going “en mass” to the Labour Department to hand themselves over and put their fate in the hands of the authorities. The implications of this are that the sponsor will probably incur a huge fine (for employing staff illegally), as well as having his company trade licence revoked – in which case he stands to loose more than he would have by simply releasing them. This could be used to angle the deal in favour of the employees.
Fines start from about 50,000 and can run up to 1,000,000 depending on the charges/ allegations and infringements by the company.

dbxsoul wrote:
b) The labour department arrests, jails and deports everyone for working illegally.

Thanks once again for your help Dbxsoul

Regarding your reply above... will the 7 employees be considered as "illegal workers" despite having a Valid Residence Visa but ONLY no labour card?

well they are definilty going to ask them how they managed to support themselves for the past months, secondly they will see that the same sponsor has sponsored them for residency and possibly put 2 and 2 together...

dbxsoul wrote:well they are definilty going to ask them how they managed to support themselves for the past months, secondly they will see that the same sponsor has sponsored them for residency and possibly put 2 and 2 together...

As stated before, they must have got Labour approval prior to the issue of the residence permit and the responsibility to get the Labour card is with the Employer. The Employees should lodge a complaint to the labour dept.