MOHRE implements a program to enhance cultural diversity in labor market

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) has announced it is implementing a strategic program aimed at enhancing cultural diversity in the labor market by granting privileges to private sector establishments in which cultural diversity is no less than 50 per cent.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) has announced it is implementing a strategic program aimed at enhancing cultural diversity in the labor market by granting privileges to private sector establishments in which cultural diversity is no less than 50 per cent.

The program comes as part of the strategic policies and standards that the MOHRE applies in its bid to achieve the objectives of the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda related to the labor market, which, according to global competitiveness reports, is the world’s second largest labor market in terms of attracting highly qualified manpower, said Dr. Omar Al Nuaimi, Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation for Communication and International Relations.

He stressed the importance of the program in terms of highlighting the values ​​and humanitarian principles prevailing in the labor market, particularly tolerance and acceptance of others’ views, these being two of the main pillars of the UAE labor market.

Al Nuaimi pointed out that the program plays a key role in improving productivity, innovation and market efficiency by giving private sector establishments several options to attract highly qualified and experienced manpower of diverse cultures worldwide to be engaged in many targeted strategic economic activities including the financial sectors, industry, hospitality, oil and gas, health, construction and other vital sectors.

“The cultural diversity enhancement program will support UAE employers by reducing the labor recruitment costs for establishments in which no less than 50 per cent of their workforce belong to a variety of cultural backgrounds”, he said.

Al Nuaimi explained that the ministry’s working methodology for implementing the program is based on three themes, the first of which is embodied in developing partnerships and bilateral co-operation with the governments of labor exporting countries by concluding memorandums of understanding with them. This would ease the procedures of recruiting labor from these countries to meet the needs of the private sector and enable it to benefit from the advantages of the cultural diversity program, he added.

The MOHRE would also bring under control and regulate the recruitment process, particularly through the licensed recruitment agencies in the UAE and the labor exporting countries, while enhancing transparency in all stages of the temporary contractual work cycle, guaranteeing the rights and entitlements of all the parties concerned and implementing joint programs to raise labor’s awareness, he said.

In this context, the MOHRE concluded memorandums of understanding over the past three months with the governments of Nepal, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya to implement best practices for recruitment of labor from these countries, he said.

Preparations are under way for concluding memorandums of understanding with other countries for easing the procedures of recruiting their labor to meet the needs of the private sector and enable it to benefit from the advantages of the cultural diversity enhancement program, he added.

The second theme is embodied in developing partnerships with the UAE private sector including recruitment agencies in order to help establishments attract highly qualified labor from the labor exporting countries, particularly those with which memorandums of understanding were signed, he said.

The UAE private sector is a strategic partner of the ministry, which is keen on supporting this partnership in line with the shared roles and responsibilities, he added, noting that this would contribute to achieving the objectives of the cultural diversity enhancement program in establishments and enabling them to benefit from the privileges provided by this program.

The third theme is embodied in organizing forums to build and develop the relationship between local private sector establishments and major recruitment agencies in labor exporting countries, which are a party to the memorandums of understanding, he said, noting that this would ease and speed up recruitment and employment according to the supply and demand equation.

Last May, the Uzbek capital Tashkent hosted the ‘Uzbekistan-UAE Work Forum – Job & Career Opportunities’ with the participation of recruitment agencies and employers from both countries. The forum was one of the outputs of a plan to activate the partnership between the UAE and Uzbekistan in labor areas in implementation of the protocol for co-operation concluded between the governments of the two countries in last April. The forum saw a co-operation agreement signed between the UAE and Uzbek recruitment agencies for recruitment of Uzbek labor.