Switching Jobs in UAE

Previously, anyone leaving a job and cancelling their visa faced a cooling off period for six months where one had to stay out of the country. The rules have been relaxed now. Expatriates working in Dubai, UAE are permitted to switch jobs on completion of two years with their current employer. A No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the current employer is no-longer a pre-requisite for changing jobs in Dubai, according to latest regulation by the UAE Ministry of Labour. Earlier, during a contract termination or resignation, a NOC from the sponsoring company was a must. The new regulation implies that sponsors can no longer compel employees to work for them, and that the workers can change jobs, if they wish to. It is important to review however whether a non-compete clause was added to your contract, particularly if your new role is with a direct competitor to your current employer. This clause could mean that you are restricted to taking an unrelated role before returning to your current field. Regulations differ in the free zones, as you are technically sponsored by the free zone authority (FZA) rather than the company. Therefore if you move to another company within the free zone, there is no need to transfer your visa.

People working in the UAE can still be banned for up to a year if they try to change jobs, a Ministry of Labour official has said. The ban can be implemented even when an employee quits his or her job after two years of service. It can be lifted, however, if the new employer offers the candidate a better position than the existing one and a salary that suits the person’s qualification, according to a scale set by the ministry. There are still questions about the circumstances in which an employment ban can be enforced when a resident decides to quit their job with a view to securing employment with a new company, but officials say there are exceptions which allow bans to be lifted.

The rules and regulations that stipulate when a ban can be imposed and enforced depend on a number of legal thresholds. Traditionally, the Ministry of Labour can automatically impose a ban when an employer terminates an unlimited labour contract before completing one year of service. As a general rule, a labour ban is still “imposed on all expatriate employees in the UAE who are working in the private sector when they want to change from one employer to another if they left the current employer without having completed a minimum of two years service,” a ministry of labour official said. “An employment ban, labour ban, work permit ban are used for the same thing which means one will not be allowed to perform any kind of work in the UAE for a certain period of time and these are imposed for six months, one year, or there could be life ban.” The official said a one-year ban may be imposed at the request of a sponsor if a worker resigns before the completion of a limited period contract. A permanent ban could also be given to absconding employees or those who violate the labour law.

But there are exceptions:

Residents can move to another company if the employee remains under the same UAE sponsor or if the employee has a higher level of education to fulfill a position that is needed within the country.

“Employees who have been slapped with a six-month labour ban for breaking their contracts before the expiry of two years can work for a new company, provided they hold at least a high school diploma and have been offered a good position and salary by the new company.”

He said employees working in the UAE who receive a six-month labour ban for breaking an employment contract within two years can have the ban lifted if the employee is changing job for the companies under the same sponsor.

If the employee has a NOC (No Objection Certificate) from the current sponsor then he or she will be able to move to another company under a different sponsor, the official said.

The minimum salary in a new position is Dh5,000 for high school diploma holders, Dh7,000 for post-secondary school diploma holders, and Dh12,000 for Bachelor degree holders.

No fee will be imposed for lifting the labour ban when these conditions are met, according to a senior administrator at the ministry.

The ministry said that if the employee has violated the contract in any way, then irrespective of resignation or termination, a ban can be enforced. 

 

A six-month ban imposed by the Ministry of Labour on people who fail to complete the period of employment stipulated under labour rules also applies to working women sponsored by their family members.

An official from the ministry said women seeking to change their jobs or leave work before completing the contractual obligation of two years with their employer would automatically attract the ban.

The official said the ban would take effect the moment a woman under the sponsorship of her husband or father cancels her labour card.

He said the mandatory six-month labour ban applies to both men and women, even if individuals are sponsored by family members, and is calculated from the date an employee’s labour card is cancelled at the Ministry of Labour.