Detailed Information About United Arab Emirates-Philippines New Agreement

Introduction

The new agreement between the government of the Emirates and the government of the Philippines will affect domestic workers. This new rule is also made for Philippines nationals who wanted to get employed inside the United Arab Emirates. In the year 2021, the UAE government closed all private companies hiring domestic UAE workers. Domestic workers from the Philippines, Africa, and Indonesia were mostly hired by these private companies. But, no basic rights were given to domestic workers. 

This was the main reason to close private companies hiring household servants from the government. The main idea of the UAE Phillipine's new agreement is to give foreign domestic workers the right income. In 2014, the Philippines government stopped the hiring of domestic workers by UAE private labor hiring companies. This was due to the high number of negligence cases. 

After the labor recruitment ban, people from the Philippines still worked in UAE. They continued to visit UAE on short-term visas like tourist UAE visas. And later converted their tourist visa into UAE labor work visa. Many of them left UAE without completing labor contracts due to bad treatment. According to estimation, around one million Philippines nationals are currently living in UAE. And 20% of the total Philippines population in UAE, work as domestic workers.

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UAE Philippine's new agreement

According to the new agreement, now there will be direct hiring of domestic workers between the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates. 95% of companies are already closed after the major step taken by the UAE government. The hiring of domestic workers will be done only through government-authorized channels in the Philippines and UAE. Now, the hiring of domestic workers from the Philippines can only be done through the Tadbeer service center. Both accredited centers of UAE, as well as the Philippines, will see the labor contract. The UAE government will also cut the domestic visa expense to half. All the labor rights of the worker being shifted from the Philippines to the UAE will also be protected. It will bring the all-over expense of hiring labor.

Employer responsibilities;

• Employers hiring particular foreign nationals from foreign countries have to meet certain requirements.
• Employers have to inform the Philippines embassy after the employee arrives in UAE. 
• According to UAE Philippine's new agreement, the worker must not be treated badly by any person in the house.
• The maid, nanny, or worker must get 8 hours of rest time for sleep. The worker must get a place to live in. 
• The Philippine embassy can contact the laborers anytime through call.
• Both the employer and Philippine employee must visit the embassy whenever required.
• Without the permission of the Philippines approval, the labor contract can not be extended further. Permission is also required for transferring to another employee. Workers can get benefits provided by the government according to the new agreement. 

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Problems face by labour from foreign countries. 

Earlier, when private companies were in charge of hiring labor to protect their rights. Workers have to face many issues and struggles on daily basis. Problems like:

• Salaries were not given to the hired labor in time. The salary given to laborers or workers was not enough.
• Very less to no benefits were provided to an employee
• Less rest time
• The travel documents of workers were held without any valid reason.
• No vacation
• Expenses of domestic visas were pretty high
• Frequent and fake absconded cases
• Issues related to canceling employment contract
• No protection of labor rights
• No guarantee

Benefits of the new agreement and labor hiring rule in UAE

• Now, the domestic worker coming to UAE for labor work will get a minimum salary. The minimum salary is expected to be  $400 monthly. Which is an important condition for hiring a domestic worker.
• Any case of the statement given against the employee by the employer. Or vice versa, then it will be governed according to UAE national law.
• Workers working in UAE who want to pay all loans or debt. Then they can take the help of the Philippines embassy to leave UAE.

UAE Tourist visa for the Philippines

The Philippines are genuinely traveling to the United Arab Emirates for tourism purposes. They all can apply for UAE tourist visa application online. To submit the e- visa application, the Philippines can visit the UAE visa online website. After 3 to 4 days of UAE tourist visa application, the Philippines will get the visa via email which can be printed out.

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Conclusion

The UAE Philippine's new agreement will not only protect the labor law of every individual working inside the Emirates. And will ensure that the domestic worker hired from the Philippines will receive basic benefits and minimum wage.