Insurance in lieu of Bank Guarantee

:Description

Driven by MOHER's efforts to develop and launch initiatives and capabilities that support its readiness for the future and ensure full readiness for all the variables surrounding the country and the developments taking place in all economic, political, technological, industrial, environmental, social and legal fields, and in line with the strategic forward-looking plans and visions of the United Arab Emirates and supporting its strategic planning capabilities, the ministry worked on developing an insurance system as an alternative to bank guarantee to raise the efficiency of the labour market in preserving the rights of workers in case of crises and emergencies. The system guarantees the worker's rights, which include labour entitlements (end-of-service benefits, leave and other allowances, unpaid wages, costs of an economy-class return flight ticket to the home country in the event that private sector enterprises fail to fulfil this with a set of controls and requirements imposed on establishments to register its workers and to return the amounts covered by the system.

The Ministry supported the innovative transformation of the traditional work permit model based on bank guarantees, by launching the first insurance policy since 2017.  It supported the continuity of services during the Covid-19 crisis by providing insurance for workers and pumping nearly AED 10 billion into the market so far from guarantees. It provided rights to about 5 million labours and domestic workers for salaries, end-of-service benefits, vacation allowances, repatriation expenses, and others. 

In order to ensure the efficiency of labour market regulation during the Covid-19 crisis, the insurance system contributed to preserving the rights of workers in the event of crises and emergencies. The system covers labour entitlements (end-of-service gratuity, leave allowance, unpaid wages, and costs of an economy-class return ticket to home country) compared to a return ticket to the home country under the previous system. Through the insurance system, MOHRE provided the basic needs of 16,000 workers in about 40 defaulting establishments until they receive their dues and settle their status by leaving the country or getting a new job opportunity.

MOHRE also allowed the establishments to retrieve the bank guarantee immediately upon renewing the work permit, and contacted them in a proactive manner. It developed standards and criteria for registering their workers, returning the amounts covered from the establishments system, and enabling them to comply with the controls and preserve the rights of both production parties.

The outputs of the workplace injuries registration system (the national system for reporting work-related injuries) were linked to include compensation for work injuries in the insurance system to raise the level of ensuring the safety of workers at the state level.