MIDDLE EAST EMPLOYMENT LAW SEMINAR - DLA Piper

[Pages:28]MIDDLE EAST EMPLOYMENT LAW SEMINAR

Navigating the GCC Employment Landscape in 2017

11 April 2017



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Agenda & Presenters

1 Nationalisation policies in the UAE and Saudi

Arabia

2 Changes in Qatar Labour Laws 3 Protecting confidential information and

customer connections in the UAE

4 Questions?



Neil Crossley Head of Employment, Middle East

T: +971 4438 6345 M: +971 50 554 5987 neil.crossley@

Patricia Wardrop Senior Legal Consultant, UAE

T: +971 4438 6332 M: +971 55 224 4067 patricia.wardrop@

Iain Skinner Senior Legal Consultant, UAE

T: +971 4438 6368 M: +971 55 176 7373 iain.skinner@

Ammar AlZughaiby Senior Legal Consultant, KSA

T: +966 1120 18927 M: +966 5445 24481 ammar.alzughaiby@

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Nationalisation policies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

Nationalisation in UAE

Emiratisation: to increase employment of UAE nationals in the private sector and develop the skills of UAE nationals

A requirement to employ UAE nationals as a percentage of their workforces

Originally applied to banking sector only Later extended to cover companies in other sectors

(e.g. insurance) The quotas were:

? 2% for commercial entities with over 50 employees; ? 4% for banks; ? 5% for insurance companies with over 50

employees Requirement for PRO to be UAE national or GCC

national and HR Manager to be UAE national



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Nationalisation in UAE

Emiratisation requirements not currently applicable in free zones

2016 `Youth and Entrepreneurship in UAE' report by the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development estimated approximately 14% of UAE nationals are unemployed ? Compare to the unemployment rate of non-nationals: approximately 2 to 3%

UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda: to increase employment of UAE nationals in the private sector tenfold ? Government devised training programmes ? Subsidies offered to encourage hiring and retention



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Nationalisation in UAE Tawteen

Tawteen: a new Emiratisation scheme introduced December 2016 ? requires certain roles to be advertised to potentiailly suitable UAE national applicants before foreign workers ? UAE nationals register on an online portal for private sector vacancies ? Selected companies must advertise vacancies this way (currently employers with 80 or more employees) ? Once advertised, the role will remain open for 5 days, after which the employer may reject (providing reasons) or invite the applicant for interview

New secretaries should be employed using government systems so UAE nationals will be recommended for the role



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Tawteen cont.

No particular sector/industry is being targeted;

Non-compliant companies face a block on their ability to hire expatriate candidates;

No official requirement to interview every jobseeker who matches the relevant job posting, however, at least some of the jobseekers should be interviewed if a high number of matches;

Rejections likely to be monitored by MOHRE; Emiratisation Club introduced as an incentive

to compliance.



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Tawteen cont.

'Red Carpet' services available through Emiratisation Club. Higher points lead to greater benefits. Points are awarded according to different categories (different categories have different weightings); ? Employment (50%) ? Training (20%) ? Flexible working arrangements (10%) ? Senior Management incentives (10%) ? Work environment (10%)



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