Oyibopeppeh

Your comments on the following please:

My contract of employment is with a UK based company. Here in the UAE, we have a sponsor who also acts as our agent. They provide my residence visa and all the usual stuff.

As part of this set up, I also have a local "contract" with the sponsor/agent, which specifies a nominal salary of xxxx Dhs per month, which is not actually paid by the sponsor - my salary is transferred each month from the employer in the UK.

Is there any kind of legal requirement for my salary (i.e. the amount shown on the local "contract") to be paid to me by the sponsor?

The reason I ask is that the UAE sponsor/agent is telling me that the rules have been changed recently and there is a requirement for the sponsor to prove to the authorities in Abu Dhabi that they are actually paying me.

What I am looking for is a confirmation that the sponsor is legally obliged to show this proof of salary payment.

If anyone out there has a link they can post which confirms this requirement, I'll be most grateful.

Chris_m

Yes now here in Dubai and also Abu Dhabi, There must be a paper trail of a salary, To cover this have him write you a cheque. Cash it in his branch with your passport and return the money to him.

Its to stop people selling visa's to people who would use it for a more sinister reason to stay in the UAE!!!

andrewpops

I have a similar arrangement - the regulations they are referring to are called WPS (Wage (?) Protection Scheme) - it came in a while ago (http://www.ameinfo.com/204580.html) but not sure how our sponsor is getting around it as I'm paid like you are.

On a seperate issue - where does the employee stand with end of service benefit with this setup?

Meow

The legal requirement is the WPS - Wages Protection System and employers can only get around this by paying people outside of the UAE. That's the theory at least.

As said, it is to ensure that people are paid properly on time (allegedly) but the cynic in me wonders if it'll be used to levy income tax one day...

Oyibopeppeh

But seeing that we're here under the sponsorship of a local company where a salary is specified in the contract, doesn't the sponsor still need to show proof of payment to the person employed, even when they are paid into a UK account, for example?

Meow

Ones assumes that records are available.

Oyibopeppeh

So, if as the previous poster suggests, that if the sponsor writes me a cheque, which I cash and then return the money along with the remittance advice slip that the WPS requirements have been met?

Meow

Well that way there would be a record of monies leaving their account and going into yours, plus hopefully a payslip. record enough for anyone I'd have thought.

My understanding however, (admittedly vague on this issue) was that employees in the UAE are supposed to be paid to a bank account with monies going through the WPS. Might be best to make a quick call to MoL for clarification.

lanarkwitch

Yes you must be paid by direct transfer to the bank or via one of the card based systems eg C3 which doesn't require a bank account but allows you to take money out of the card until there is none left !

All employment data is transferred, at least in AD to the MOL each month and they are checking visa records against payments made, actually this has been the case for some time, probably the time limit for transitioning to these systems is almost up so guess thats why the sponsor is going on about it now