Abu Dhabi Judicial Department members up by 35 per cent

The number of workers who participated in the awareness campaign of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) has increased by 35 per cent beyond the target set for the year 2018. The number of participants rose from 100,000 to 135,000 workers spread over 19 labour villages in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Al Dhafrah regions.

ADJD under-secretary Yousef Saeed Al Abri said, "Our awareness campaign, launched in 2018, has achieved its objectives, which is to promote the propagation of legal culture amongst workers and brief them about their rights and duties guaranteed by the UAE law."

The awareness drive has been initiated on the directives of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, and Chairman of the Judicial Department, to achieve the strategic priority of contributing to maintaining security through sustainable participation with all components of the community.

Al Abri said the campaign has contributed to the decrease in the number of complaints and labour cases during the ongoing year 2018, by 42 per cent compared to the same period last year, as cases dropped from 16,897 cases in 2017 to 9,979 cases in 2018.

Head of the ADJD Labor Awareness Committee Ahmed Al Marzouqi, unveiled the plan to expand the geographical scope of the Committee's work during the coming period to include all the workers' villages in the Abu Dhabi Emirate and the conduct of visits to employers to raise their awareness of their rights and duties of the employer and the worker.

He also said that awareness campaigns focussed on organising activities in labour villages to ensure access to a large segment of the target group, with keenness to provide the lectures in five languages including Arabic, English, Urdu, Pashto, and Bengali, to shed the light on the most important legal articles guaranteeing labourers' rights in the UAE.

"This is in addition to answering all questions and inquiries, which amounted to about 1000 questions and requests for legal advice, centered mainly on how to calculate the end of service gratuity and leave balance, and the complaints submission mechanism," he further informed.

Al Marzouqi pointed out the organisation of 24 lectures to explain the UAE labour law, the rights and duties of the worker and the mechanism to open a case as well as the prohibitions that must be avoided so as not to fall under legal liability and the procedures of safety and security in labour camps.