Hiring housemaids on a part-time basis is helping both the employers as well as the workers.
While this has benefited the employers to seek replacements in case of work-related issues, it has also reduced unfair treatment of workers and runaway cases, said a senior UAE government official.
Counsellor Ali Hamid bin Khatam, Advocate General and Head of the Nationality and Residency Prosecution, said that many families in the UAE have started hiring domestic workers on a temporary basis instead of bearing the cost of the housemaid’s residence visa.
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He said the “time-based packages give the employers the freedom to return the maid to the agency if things don’t work out.”
“Also, through Tadbeer centres, the housemaid may choose to work for another family if she is uncomfortable with the current employer,” he added during a virtual forum.
The time-based package system provides on-demand services which has curbed domestic worker-related violations, hiring workers on expired visas, and also reduced the problem of runaway housemaids. Housemaids can work under the sponsorship of their recruiting agencies.
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Khatam also said that the temporary work package allows recruitment offices to keep workers under their sponsorship. He said this ensures their allocation to different families on hourly or day basis.
Though costly, families have become more comfortable with “it because it is easy and saves them from several obligations, including the procedures for issuing residency for the worker,” he added. (AW)
