Urgent discussions over UAE contract issue
View(s):Sri Lankan authorities are planning urgent consultations in Dubai with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Labour to discuss the recent, controversial unified contract for domestic workers, officials said.
“The Ministry (Foreign Employment, Promotion and Welfare) has asked our ambassador in the UAE to seek a meeting with Minister Dilan Perera and a delegation to discuss this issue (there),” said Mangala Randeniya, media spokesperson at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE).
“We cannot implement this as it impedes on our laws and regulations,” he said, adding however that old job orders (based on the earlier contract) would be fulfilled.
Faizer Mackeem, President of the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agents (ALFEA), said their member-agents have suspended new contracts and job orders until further notice and till ‘we sort this out’.
There was confusion in Colombo last week over the new contract, effective since June and which is an agreement between the employer (sponsor) and the worker and doesn’t need the authentication of the embassies of the sending countries.
SLBFE officials and other migrant worker analysts said that while it provides a lot of benefits to the workers, what is seriously missing is the involvement of the sending government in endorsing the contract. Furthermore most sending countries have laws that make it compulsory to attest a contract and thus take responsibility over their citizens when working abroad.