The United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Labor will lift a six-month employment ban from January 2016 if a labor contract is cancelled by mutual consent, local media reported. The cancellation of the ban is part of labor reforms that were introduced in September this year and are expected to take effect in January 2016. According to a report by Al Bayan that quoted a senior ministry official, employees will be allowed to join another company even if they did not complete two years at their current employer, provided they have the company's consent. However, employees who have not yet completed six months with the first facility will be exempted from this clause, assistant undersecretary at ministry of labor Humaid Rashid bin Dimas Al Suwaidi said. Currently all workers who terminate their employment contracts mutually and have completed two years are not allowed to join a new role until after six months of the cancellation of the work permit, he added. But with the new rules coming into force, employees will be handed a new labor card immediately once they join a new role. The measures are part of the UAE's efforts to improve the mobility and flexibility of the labor force within the market to make it more competitive. Al Suwaidi said that 340,000 workers, who did not complete two years, were unable to get a new work permit last year as a result of the previous rule. Earlier this year, the UAE's Ministry of Labor issued a set of new regulations that deal with labor contracts, termination and changing of jobs. In addition to cancelling the six-month employment ban, officials tightened regulations on contractual agreements between employees and employers. Meanwhile, Saqr Ghobash, UAE Minister of Labor, has issued three ministerial decrees in an effort to enhance UAE labor market conditions and consolidate the contractual nature of labor relations. The new rules, described by the minister as "a major milestone", also seek to "close certain gaps pertaining to the enforcement and monitoring of labour relations, and provide for increased labor mobility in accordance with the provisions of our labor law". "I trust that these new decrees, together with the hard work ahead of us to improve our implementation and enforcement capacities, will translate into a qualitative leap in our quest to improve labor conditions in the UAE," Ghobash said. — Agencies
