As part of a new Ministerial Resolution, No. 663 of 2022, the UAE government has issued certain rules to regulate job postings in the country. The Resolution strictly warns those who post job offers which are misleading or which do not exist at all. Following Article 2 of the Resolution, establishments are prohibited from the following, when posting jobs for the purpose of Emiratisation:

  1. Displaying advertisements about misleading jobs which do not represent actual and available jobs, or in unskilled professional levels
  2. Including government Emiratisation policies or benefits in displaying jobs in the private sector without approval from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation
  3. Including government support and benefits in displaying jobs to nationals in the private sector

Advertisement by any means, including the NAFIS platform, is prohibited under this Resolution.

Emiratisation: Emiratisation is a policy of the UAE government to encourage the employment of Emiratis, that is the local population of the UAE, in the private and public sectors. Although the local population of the UAE is employed in most of the public establishments, the private sector is still lacking representation. The UAE government introduced this initiative in order to generate job opportunities specifically for the locals. However, a number of employers and establishments have been posting job offers with the benefits of Emiratisation without taking permission from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE). Therefore, under this Resolution, employers posting fictitious job offers will be subject to the prescribed penalties.

The Resolution comes as an effort to ensure that the Emiratisation policies are being abided by. Employers and business owners hiring nationals for work are required to fulfill the obligations below, as per Article 5 of the Resolution:

  1. Obtaining a work permit for the employee
  2. Signing an employment contract with the employee
  3. Paying the wage as agreed upon according to the Wages Protection System
  4. Registering the employee and paying the monthly contributions for the pension and social security systems within one month of issuing the work permit
  5. Cancelling the permit as soon as the contract ends
  6. Reporting any change in the employment contract which may affect the provisions of the NAFIS program

A national will not receive a lower wage than that of his counterparts performing the same tasks in the establishment just because the national is entitled to government support programs. Doing so would mean circumventing the rules laid down in the laws governing Emiratisation (Article 4).

In turn, nationals who are being employed in the private sector are also required to work in consonance with the rules of the Labour Code, Federal Decree-Law No. 33/2021 on Regulation of Labour Relations , its Implementing Regulations, the decisions related to the NAFIS program, as well as the stipulations in the employment contract signed by such employed national. Any practice in contravention to this Resolution must be reported to the MoHRE (Article 6).

Penalties: Anyone who violates the provisions mentioned in Article 2 or any other provision of this Resolution, will be liable to the penalties as per the Labour Code, the relevant Cabinet Decisions, as well as any other applicable legislation.

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