The UAE recognises the importance of protecting the rights of domestic workers. UAE Federal Law No. 9 of 2022 stipulates stringent provisions for recruitment agencies and employers, clearly outlining their obligations to prevent exploitation of domestic workers.
Specifically, the UAE protects domestic workers against financial exploitation, abuse, harassment and forced labour, and ensures that their rights are upheld before the law. Employers are legally required to communicate the contract terms, the nature of the job, the workplace, the wage, and daily and weekly time off to the domestic worker they are seeking to employ. The law requires that this information be relayed to the worker before they are recruited and before leaving their home country.
In addition to the general protection enjoyed by everyone in the UAE, the law provides an additional set of rights for domestic workers. Domestic workers have the right to at least 12 hours of daily rest, the right to be paid the costs of their medical treatment, and the right to receive the value of a return ticket to their home country once every two years.
The law also stipulates that the employer provide domestic helpers with appropriate accommodation and proper meals, and prohibits the employer from retaining workers’ identification documents, such as passports, identity cards, etc.
Domestic workers are required to fulfil the mandatory orientation requirement prior to resuming their duties, assuring their knowledge of the laws and empowering them with the mechanisms in place to access justice in cases of dispute and guarantee their entitlements through the dispute resolution mechanisms applied by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.