A bird's eye view of Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. ARCHIVE

A company has been fined Dh100,000 for fraudulently evading Emiratisation targets, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) on Tuesday (June 20). According to MoHRE, the company transferred the work permits of its existing employees to another company under the same owner to lessen its workforce count and make it exempt from the Emiratisation rule. “Our systems have detected the company’s attempt to evade Emiratisation targets by cancelling work permits for some of its employees and issuing new permits for them under another company belonging to the same employer in order to reduce the total number of staff to less than 50, which would make it exempt from achieving Emiratisation targets,” according to MoHRE. “MoHRE’s inspection teams visited the company, and it was confirmed that the other employees were transferred to the other company and are still working at it,” it added. Under the UAE’s Emiratisation rule, private sector companies with 50 or more employees must meet  a 2 percent Emiratisation target per year, which has been split to 1 percent every six months. The semi-annual deadline is on July 7. Companies that fail to meet the Emiratisation deadline will be fined Dh42,000 for each Emirati they have not employed as of July 8. Under the UAE rule, repeat violators will be fined Dh300,000, which will go up to Dh500,000 for subsequent violations. The ministry stressed that it would deal “firmly with any company proven to have committed fraud, taking all necessary measures against it.” ICA/Expat Media
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