Starting today the UAE Ministry of Human of Human Resources and Emiratisation will begin classifying organisations into categories and revising work permit fees based on the cultural diversity and skill-level of its workforce.
Work permit costs are higher for lower-skilled workers and higher overall in companies with lower diversity rates.
In an announcement last month, the ministry had also urged private companies to recruit more Emirati nationals and join the Emiratisation Partners Club to avail benefits not limited to fee waivers on labour permits, reduced requirements for bank deposits.
According to the new directive that comes into effect today, organisations will be classified into three categories depending on the nature of their activity.
The first category includes fishing boat companies, Emiratisation partners, and organisations classified as youth project support institutions.
Category 2 places all other companies employing more than 1 person into four further sub-divisions.
“2A” companies need to show half their workforce is from another country and that over 40 percent of their workforce is skilled.
“2B” companies will be able to show half their workforce is from another country but only between 10 and 40 percent of the workforce are skilled.
“2C” companies will once again be able to show half their workforce is from another country, but only between five and 10 percent of the workforce is skilled.
Companies classified 2D are those with less than five percent of staff qualified for skilled labour and with a less than 50 percent cultural split.
Category 3 is reserved for companies that have violated any part of the labour law.
Fishing boat companies are exempted from having to pay for work permits but all others will need to issue two-year work permits to workers at a cost between AED 300 and AED 3,200.
The exercise implements a recent UAE cabinet decision to classify establishments and improve labour relations in the country.
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