Q: An acquaintance of mine has been put in police custody as she was working in Dubai in a company that was involved in an employment fraud. She is on a visitor visa which is expiring in a few days. She has no money. The employer has fled the country. They are taking her to court & will provide legal aid. There are 3 more people like her from India - who have been caught in this. All of them were promised a working visa but were actually working on visitor visas. How long these cases last? How much you pay for bail? What will happen to her visa (she will have to stay till the case is finished - I guess)? What can she do in terms of documents, statements, affidavits to prove her innocence?

Q: Ma’am/sir, I just want to ask if we have a right to complain at the labor office. We are working on a company based in Business Bay, Dubai since October 2019. The employer asks us to work though we don't have working visas. We agreed because he said he will process the visas before the end of the month as he needs to see if we are capable to do the job. After a month, he said he will process our visas since we are doing well. We’ve waited for a month then, suddenly, he said we need to wait for 3 months because we are still on a probationary period. So we keep on extending our visit visas. After 3 months, he said he will process it but till now we don't have our visas. Most of my colleagues' visas are already expired and he didn’t give us our salary from last month. He doesn’t come to the office too and doesn’t reply to our messages. Can we still get our salaries from him or even fix our visas? Thank you in advance!

Q: Dear Sir, I am an Endodontist Dentist from India. I got offer letter on 29 July 2016. The HAAD licence for a specialist dentist was complete on 14 October 2016. I contacted my employer regarding employment visa but every time he gave me an excuse! Now is 23 January 2017 till now there is no proper response from the employer about the employment visa. How should I move out of the situation? What legal procedures can I follow so that the employer either get me employment visa or let me move out to search any other job without getting work ban? Kindly help me in the situation.

Three new ministerial decrees containing a new set of rules for the labour market were issued by the UAE Ministry of Labour last year and came into force on the 1st of January this year. The decrees are expected to alter the contractual relationship between employers and workers in the UAE.

The UAE has adopted a major reform in its legislative system that brought about 40 new laws and amendments to the company law, criminal law, personal status, among others. The amendments aim to develop the legislative structure in various sectors, the labor law being one of these, was the most recent. We try in this article to shed light on the changes introduced with the new labor law and their significance on both, the employer and employee.

According to this Decree, tentative approval to admit a foreign worker for the purpose of employment in the UAE cannot be granted until an Employment Offer that conforms with the Standard Employment Contract is duly signed by the employee and presented to the Ministry of Labour.

The provisions of this Law, known as "UAE Labour Law", govern the relationship between employers and employees and other labour matters in the United Arab Emirates. There are special labour related regulations applicable in some of the free zones in the UAE.

The provisions of this Decree-Law, known as "New UAE Labor Law", govern labour relations in the private sector of the United Arab Emirates. The New Labor Law repeals the previous UAE Labor Law (Federal Law No. (8) of 1980).