Tim Elliot: Welcome to another edition of Lawgical, the U.A.E.’s first legal podcast. Lawgical comes to you from HPM Yamalova & Plewka, the Dubai-based legal firm, HPL. We are here in JLT, Jumeirah Lakes Towers. My name’s Tim Elliot. As ever, I’m very pleased to welcome the Managing Partner, Ludmila Yamalova, always good to see you again.
Ludmila Yamalova: A pleasure to be chatting with you again, Tim.
Tim Elliot: This time on Lawgical, in this edition, a breakdown of domestic workers’ entitlements. I want to start, Ludmila, with a consideration of what the term domestic worker means. This was really interesting to me. I know you can give us more details on this, the types of roles that qualify a person as a domestic worker, and there are many.
Ludmila Yamalova: Yes. This is, by the way, a subject explained by the U.A.E. Federal Law number 15 of 2017. This is the law that was introduced specifically to govern employment of domestic workers. Interestingly enough, prior to the introduction of this law, these domestic workers did not qualify and were not subject to the U.A.E. labor law, so there wasn’t actually a specific law that would govern the employment of domestic workers before. They were more under the jurisdiction of immigration authorities, believe it or not. In 2017 that was changed, and this specific employment law was issued to apply to domestic workers. In relevant parts, the domestic workers’ employment law is in many ways very similar in terms of benefits and protections that are provided to employees as that of the U.A.E. labor law.
With regard to the category of employees, if you will, that it applies, and remember we are talking about the context of employment, it applies to employees who are qualified or deemed to be domestic workers, and that includes categories such as a housemaid, babysitter or nanny, gardener, cook, and some of the more nuanced ones, such as a watchman or security guard, chauffer, and then parking/valet workers. There is one that is a private pro, or a household farmer, or even a category called private agriculture engineer. These are the categories that are called domestic workers and are subject to this law.
Tim Elliot: Some of the more nuanced, the more niche, categories there are interesting. There is one for a private sailor, the agriculture engineer that you spoke about there, but the private pro is interesting because this is a position that I don’t think is held in any other country as far as I’m aware, but a pro in the Emirates is a public relations officer. But that’s not somebody who would write you a press release and send it to a newspaper. This is somebody who would act on your behalf when it came to carrying out bureaucratic concerns – I don’t know – applying for a visa for staff, for example, or for an Emirate’s ID. It is that kind of job, isn’t it?
Ludmila Yamalova: Correct. This is the role or the historical designation that applies for any kind of government services, be it, for example, applying for licenses, company licenses, visas or cancellation of visas, or any other kind of immigration requests, and anything to do with judicial authorities. Basically, it’s the public relations officer, meaning it’s the officer that represents in this case that would represent the family before various government authorities. That is the designation. What I want to highlight here in describing this particular category of domestic workers is that these workers end up being sponsored by an individual. For example, if you hire a nanny, that nanny’s visa will not be issued by some kind of a company. A nanny is an employee of such and such a person. This is very different from all other employees in the U.A.E. and that is, whenever they have these employment visas, they are working for the company and on their residence visa it will show they are an employee of such and such company. These domestic workers are personal employees or individual employees that are working for individuals and officially under their sponsorship. Also, one thing I want to note is that there are a lot of people in the U.A.E. who are ultimately domestic workers and perform domestic worker services for all intents and purposes, however, visa wise, they are not sponsored as such, so they would be sponsored under a company. For example, the employer might have a company, and so instead of sponsoring that domestic worker under his or her own visa as a domestic worker employee, they would sponsor them under the company. In that case, this law does not apply. Even though the person does the job that would qualify and would otherwise be covered, but for the purposes of entitlements under the U.A.E. labor law, they would be considered to be a corporate employee, an employee working for the company, and therefore, subject to the U.A.E. labor law and not this domestic worker law.
Tim Elliot: It’s important to make that distinction. Let’s discuss what’s statutory when it comes to benefits that domestic workers are now entitled to, if we can break this down as per the U.A.E. federal law you mentioned, Number 10 of 2017. It’s Article 12 on domestic workers in the Emirates. Can we start with rest days, Ludmila?
Ludmila Yamalova: Yes. So, they are entitled to rest days. It is 12 hours of rest per day and 8 hours of which must be consecutive. This is very important, and that is why this category exists because a lot of domestic workers, by definition they live with the family. They live in the houses. Many of them take care of children. As we all know with children, it’s a 24/7 running around, so the law specifically provides that these domestic workers are entitled to 12 hours per day of rest and 8 hours of which must be consecutive, which means you cannot interrupt their sleep, for example. You cannot make them take naps for 2 to 3 hours and then wake them up every 2 to 3 hours and make them do chores. That is one benefit that is very important to highlight because that is one element of a relationship which is often prone to abuse.
Tim Elliot: What other entitlements/benefits, for example, things like medical insurance, accommodations, meals, uniforms, that kind of thing are domestic workers entitled to?
Ludmila Yamalova: Yes. In addition to the 12 hours of rest per day, 8 hours of which must be consecutive, domestic workers are also entitled to one rest day per week. That is nonnegotiable, if you will, so one day per week they must receive off. By the way, this is another example of a benefit that is often abused, and a lot of domestic workers are not allowed to even take that one day per week off. Now in the event, and the law provides for this, in the event that they are not able to take that one day a week off, or not allowed for one reason or another, they must be offered either an alternative day off or a monetary compensation for that day.
Let’s say you have a nanny, and your children are sick, you can see how perhaps that one day a week would not be convenient for the family to allow the nanny to leave on the day when the children are sick. In that case there is still a requirement to either give them an alternative day off or at the very least compensate them.
Also, there are 30 days of sick leave that is allowed or that domestic workers are entitled to. These 30 days are broken down into two 15 days that must be given at full pay and 15 days at half pay. This is again very important because in many cases we hear stories of domestic workers that every time they are sick, not only do they not get paid for this time, but actually they have their salaries cut for every day they are not able to work because of their sickness and so they have their salaries reduced. But by law, they are allowed or they are entitled to 30 days, half of which are at full pay and half of which are at half pay.
Also, additionally, again because we are talking about domestic workers, they are entitled to medical insurance. This is, by the way, is also procedural. An employer cannot sponsor the domestic workers unless they can show to the authorities that they have health insurance sourced for them. Also, interestingly enough, the law is very specific about an employer’s obligation to provide domestic workers decent accommodations and decent meals at the employer’s expense and also attire that is suitable for the job. Again, all of these, I consider them to be quite fundamental that they are expressly provided for it the law because these are the examples in the stories that we often hear that are often subject to abuse, and that is that domestic workers don’t have a decent place to live or to even sleep, let alone meals. Often, the families don’t even provide meals for them, but as per this law, because they’re domestic workers, the employers must provide them with meals at the employer’s expense and also accommodations in addition to the clothing which the employer wants them to wear, if they have a choice, while they are working.
Those are some of the main benefits on a day-to-day basis. Now, additionally, and this is quite important is that domestic employees, whenever they take their holiday, the employer is required to pay for the annual ticket home whenever that employee wants to take time off. So, the annual ticket home is also one of the benefits. Importantly, under this domestic worker law, there is no specific requirement for an employer, being the individual who hired the domestic workers, to provide them with what is called the end-of-service gratuity. This end-of-service gratuity is a benefit that is very similar to the end-of-service compensation that is provided for in the U.A.E. labor law. Relevant parts are based on 14 days of compensation for every year of service. In other words, after 2 years, the employers are required to compensate their employees or to pay their domestic workers an additional one-month salary. It is 14 days for every year of service. After 2 years, it will be one additional month of compensation. This is called the end-of-service gratuity. What is important to highlight is that this gratuity must be paid at the end of 2 years irrespective of whether the contract is terminated or renewed. Why it is 2 years is because for expats all domestic employees are sponsored under a contract that is for the term of 2 years. At the expiration of that contract, you have to renew your contract, and at that point you have to pay your employee the additional end-of-service gratuity that amounts to an additional one month of compensation. This is really important because I think a lot of employers don’t know about it, or at least don’t pay this end-of-service gratuity until the person leaves the job post altogether. But I tell you, I think it is a very important and a very groundbreaking benefit because for so many of these domestic employees, they have families outside that they support while they are taking care of other families here, so for them to receive this benefit, otherwise they would have ultimately resign from their position or leave this one family in order to be able to get the end-of-service benefit. This is why this law is addressed very differently where you still get the end-of-service benefit, but you get it at the end of your expiration of your 2-year contract, so every 2 years. That’s a huge benefit.
There is one more benefit, and that is holidays. As I said earlier, it is 30 days per year, but the law specifically provides that employers cannot deny their employees to take holiday for more than 2 years. For every year where they don’t take holidays, they have to compensate them, but additionally they cannot deny their employees to take holidays for more than 2 years.
In other words, let’s say in year number one it is for some practical reason not possible for the employee to go back home. In that case, the employer must compensate and must pay out this one month of what would otherwise be holiday. If they are not going on holiday and working instead, the employer has to pay them the additional one-month salary, but after the second year, the employer cannot deny them the ability to go home and visit their family. That is specifically provided for in the law, and it is very important. Let’s say if the first year the employer did not pay them the salary for the one month that they did not take holiday, then at the end of the second year when the employee or domestic worker decides to go home and visit, then they basically have to get compensation for the 2 months of salary, one month for every year of service.
Tim Elliot: It’s interesting, in particular the gratuity clause there because paying every 2 years is not the case for professions that aren’t classed under a domestic work categorization, so it’s very different in terms of how this law has been drafted.
Ludmila Yamalova: Exactly. I think it was drafted exactly with the specificity of these particular employees and they a lot more vulnerable, if you will, and they are much more dependent on receiving not only their monthly salary, but all the other benefits that they would otherwise be entitled to by law so they can continue to support their families abroad. Also, because they are living in these families, often they do not have very much of their own kind of life or freedom because they are part of these other family’s lives. That is why these protections are now expressly provided for in the law to ensure that irrespective of what’s happening in the family, there are specific legal requirements which must be observed and complied with by the employer.
Tim Elliot: It’s a nice way to end this podcast actually because from a domestic worker perspective, it is a very different employee/employer relationship. Can we just recap briefly the rights that those classed and provided for as domestic workers in the U.A.E. should be entitled to?
Ludmila Yamalova: In brief, the list of benefits is
- (1) Rest: 12 hours of rest a day, 8 hours of which must be consecutive.
- (2) There is one day of rest per week.
- (3) Compensation for any missed rest days that take place.
- (4) Medical insurance.
- (5) Decent accommodations.
- (6) Decent meals at the employer’s expense.
- (7) Suitable attire at employer’s expense.
- (8) End-of-service gratuity that is paid out at the end of 2 years, every 2 years in the amount of 14 days of salary for every year of service, or one month after 2 years.
- (9) Then an annual ticket home.
- (10) Also 30 days of sick days per year, half of which are covered at full pay.
Tim Elliot: That’s another episode of Lawgical, this time the rights that those classed legally as domestic workers are entitled to here in the United Arab Emirates. Our legal expert, as always here on Lawgical, was Ludmila Yamalova, the Managing Partner at Yamalova & Plewka, in JLT, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, here in Dubai. Once again, Ludmila, a big thanks for your time and your legal expertise.
Ludmila Yamalova: Thank you. Thank you very much, Tim.
Tim Elliot: To have a legal question answered in a future episode of this program, Lawgical, or if you’d like a consultation with a qualified U.A.E. experienced legal professional, it is easy to find us on social media. We have an easy-to-search library of hundreds of podcasts on all manner of legal issues here in the U.A.E. They are free to listen to and free to download and keep as well. Or, if you prefer, you can always just head to LYLawyers.com and click on Contact.
