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Tas’heel service centres across the country will accept applications for recruiting domestic workers as part of the changes announced on Saturday, a senior official declared.

Tas’heel service centres are dealing with the public for transactions of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, which will also take care of transactions related to domestic workers from next year, said an official at the ministry, who did not want to be named.

Starting from the first quarter of 2017, recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers in the UAE will be handled by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, with the new procedure being rolled out in the emirate of Dubai first before expanding across the UAE in the second quarter of 2017.

The official said the ministry wants to make it easy for people when they apply by themselves or through an agency. The procedure will be easy and simple as it is currently with the Ministry of Interior, he said. Now typing centres attached to the Ministry of Interior are handling the application procedures. The same system will be moved to Tas’heel service centres, he said.

“We are even considering introducing an online application system in the near future,” the official said.

The ministry will start doing random test-runs of some aspects of the new system from next week in Dubai. “Therefore the ministry is well-prepared before the final procedures are implemented,” the official said.

He clarified that the ministry has not finalised all procedures of the new system. A coordination committee comprising representatives of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation is preparing the procedures of the new system, which will be announced after its completion.

“At the moment the committee is studying all aspects of the procedures,” the official said.

He said there would not be any major changes to the current system being implemented by the Ministry of Interior. The required documents and information to be given will also be the same. The main difference is that the process is transferred to a different ministry, the official explained. Welcoming the move, recruitment companies said it might pave the way for domestic workers to get their salaries through banks.

“Now the domestic workers are also expected to come under the labour laws and regulations, including the Wage Protection System (WPS) of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation,” Ratnapriya Marapana, managing director of International Admirable Services Establishment in Abu Dhabi, declared.

He said employers currently pay their domestic workers in cash. If WPS is applicable to domestic workers, it will avoid disputes over unpaid salaries, said Marapana who has been working in this sector for 22 years.

Moreover, domestic workers can approach the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation that has a robust system to address workers’ grievances, Marapana said.

He said the recruitment companies would be looking forward to the time taken to get a visa for domestic workers. “At the moment, the Ministry of Interior is issuing the visa for domestic workers the same day after receiving the application — even within a few hours.”

The visas for workers of other categories under the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation are currently issued within one week to three weeks. However, Marapana said, the application procedure does not make any difference to recruitment agents. “Sponsors directly apply for the visa of domestic workers after taking documents from us. They may continue to do so,” he said.

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The Emirates Association for Human Rights (EHRA) has lauded the Cabinet’s decision tasking the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation to oversee the recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers in the UAE.

“The move represents a significant indication of how effective and consistent the UAE leadership’s decisions are with the International Labour Organisation’s standards and approaches pertaining subjecting the domestic labour to the labor’s regulations and standards” the EHRA said.

This decision will definitely lead to reducing the chances of exploiting domestic labourers by employment offices and will guarantee their rights in accordance with the law, the EHRA added