By the HR Observer Staff

The UAE Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation Dr Abdulrahman Al Awar said in an interview on Monday that the Emiratisation by 2 percent annually is calculated based on hiring one Emirati for every 50 employees.

“The current target of Emiratisation rate … which is 2 percent, is calculated as the total number of nationals working in the establishment to the total skilled employees, which means hiring one Emirati for every 50 skilled employees per annum. The government aims to achieve an increase of 10 per cent in the Emiratisation incremental rate in the private sector by 2026,” the minister told the newspaper in an interview with local newspaper Khaleej Times on Monday.

MoHRE and the Emirati Competitiveness Council (Nafis) have imposed fines on companies who have falsified Emiratisation data. Some of the fines reached up to US $33k. In November the ministry issued a warning for those companies that reduce the salary of Emirati job seekers in an attempt to take advantage of the government’s salary support programme for Emiratis.

By next year, privately owned businesses with more than 50 employees must increase their Emiratis employees by 2 percent to increase the percentage by 10 percent by the year 2026. Those companies that fail to meet the targets by the deal will be fined Dh72,000 in January, or Dh6,000 a month for every month in 2022.

The UAE wants to ensure that at least 75,000 Emiratis are hired by the private sector in the next four years.They have allocated Dh24 billion ($6 billion) for Nafis to cover salary support and other factors.

“At the ministry, we are committed to stimulating the partnership between the public and private sectors to create job opportunities for Emiratis and advance the process of empowering Emirati talents in various areas. We continue our efforts to follow up on Emiratisation rates in the private sector, support compliant enterprises and apply monthly contributions (or fines) and administrative penalties for non-compliant ones,” the minister told the newspaper.