Abu Dhabi – The Ministry of Manpower and Indigenization has taken action against companies that do not implement the indigenization scheme Nafis in the UAE. A total of 40 crore dirhams (Rs 888 crore) were imposed on 109 companies that did not hire 2% of the locals by 2022. The rule is that private companies with more than 50 employees should hire 2% of the skilled workers per year.
The proposal is to raise the ratio to 10% by 2026, increasing by 2% every year. Companies that violated the law were fined 6,000 dirhams per month per resident and 72,000 dirhams per year. The fine will increase in proportion to the number of employees. The Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council (Nafis) meeting confirmed that 9,293 companies complied with the indigenization rule last year. It was also found that 227 companies had tampered with the nationalisation.
109 institutions that have been fined have been relegated to the third category. Cases of 20 companies have been handed over to public prosecution for further action. A fine of 20,000 to 1 lakh dirhams per person has been imposed on companies that benefit from government benefits through fake indigenization.
The number of indigenous employees in the private sector has increased to 70% through the Nafis scheme. 28,700 new jobs were added while the number of indigenous employees in the private sector crossed 50,000.