By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS
Abu Dhabi : India has welcomed an initiative by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government to have wages of overseas workers paid through banks.
“We welcome this move by the UAE government. This will go a significant way to ensure that overseas workers get their salaries in time and there are no irregularities in the payment of their wages,” Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said at a press conference here Tuesday evening.
There are round 1.4 million expatriate Indians in this Gulf nation, many of them working as contract labour in the booming construction industry here.
“This is a major initiative and will help in finishing the nexus between unscrupulous recruiting agents (in India) and sponsors (abroad) which result in exploitation of workers,” the minister said at the conclusion of the two-day Fourth Ministerial Consultation on Overseas Employment and Contractual Labour for Countries of Origin and Destination in Asia.
“(UAE’s) Labour minister (Ali Bin Abdulla) Al Kaa’bi needs to be commended for this effort,” he said.
The minister said that India, on its part, was working hard to check the activities of unscrupulous recruiting agents.
“I have written to the chief ministers of the major labour sending states – mostly the southern states and Punjab – to initiate action against all erring recruiting agents… Suspension (of licence) first, then inquiry and then cancellation of licence.
“The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has also started an electronic media campaign in this connection and a print media campaign will follow soon,” the minister said.
He said that it was also imperative that foreign employers provide compulsory medical insurance to all overseas workers.
“We want employers in host countries to provide medical health coverage to all overseas workers,” he said.
Ravi also praised the Oman government for issuing a series of guidelines to overseas workers and local employers to ensure a smooth employer-employee relationship.
“This is an exemplary initiative and I expect other countries to follow suit,” he said.
“We (India) are soon going to sign a labour welfare pact with Oman,” he added.
India has similar pacts with the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar in the Gulf.
Earlier, speaking at the concluding session of the two-day ministerial consultation, Ravi called for addressing the problem of illegal migration.
“Curbing irregular migration is an issue of concern not only in the developed nations but also in the developing world. In the absence of inclusive and equitable development, vastly differing economic opportunities combined with restrictions on free movement only serve to aggravate the problem.
“… It is here that a positive policy harmonization amongst (labour) sending and receiving countries is urgently needed,” he said.
He also called for provision of secure legal status to legal migrants in their destination countries.
“The second area of cooperation that is imperative is in providing migrants a secure legal status at destination and enabling their integration into the mainstream of society without discrimination of any kind.
“This alone can help realize the full development potential and the benefits of labour mobility to sending and receiving countries. This will require developing institutional mechanisms for their protection and welfare,” he said.
Ravi also chalked out four specific areas of cooperation between labour sending and receiving countries, starting with wages.
“The rising costs of living combined with fall in the value of the dollar has severely eroded the real wages that an overseas worker receives,” he said.
“This has placed considerable stress on workers of all nationalities. There is an urgent need to introduce a widely accepted international norm for linking the wages structure to the cost of living.”
The minister said labour laws in Gulf countries do not cover a large number of workers in the Gulf who work in farms and households.
“It is imperative that labour law protection is extended to them to ensure their protection and welfare,” he said.
There are around five million expatriate Indians in the Gulf.
The minister also called for the rationalisation and simplification of the instruments for legal entry of workers.
“Sponsorship based work entry requirement need to be re-examined to make them transparent and equitable. It should not be the case that the worker who enters legally is rendered an illegal on the basis of a unilateral withdrawal of sponsorship by the employer.”
Ravi also called for the establishment of a credible and effective joint consultative mechanism at the level of a firm that employs such workers as well as between the diplomatic missions and the local government for effective redressal of grievances of workers.
Delegations from 21 countries participated in the two-day conference.