The UAE has confirmed a policy to enshrine the free will of mutual parties within their contractual working relationships, to continue or terminate labour contracts.

This was stated by Humaid bin Deemas Al Suwaidi, Assistant Under-Secretary for Work Affairs at the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, during the meetings of a committee to address the challenges of good governance in a changing labour migration environment, as part of the 106th International Labour Conference that is currently being held in Geneva.

Al Suwaidi said that the UAE while drafting policies to review temporary contractual labour, is seeking to not only prioritise labour market requirements but to also consider national social challenges such as protecting job opportunities for nationals and preserving the balance of its population.

In his speech, he stressed that the UAE had launched its national agenda for 2021 in 2014, which aims to build a competitive knowledge-based economy that will enable the country to attract exceptional talent and capacities, and provide institutional and legislative frameworks to develop these capacities.

He added that the role of the UAE in developing policies to attract foreign workers and legislations to organise its labour market are playing a vital role in achieving these ambitions, while noting that the government has approved a set of related legislations last year, to promote the concept of transparent labour contracts that are based on the consent of the employer and employee, reducing practices that negatively affect working relations.

In his speech, Al Suwaidi spoke about the challenges facing countries that export and import workers, under the framework of the good governance of temporary contractual labour, including the lack of co-ordination between countries that export and import workers, the lack of compliance with the contents of awareness programmes provided to employees during their cycle of contractual work and the lack of information provided to them, as well as the high cost of labour migration.

He highlighted the numerous initiatives launched by the UAE to confront these challenges under the framework of bilateral and multilateral co-operation, and how it has benefited from advanced technologies in work inspection procedures and the control and supervision of firms that import foreign workers into the country. This has been achieved by developing a group of electronic control systems such as smart inspection systems and wage protection systems, as well as the development of an Asian bilateral and multilateral model of co-operation and other initiatives, to develop their skills and documents the various stages of temporary work contracts.