A new UAE law ensuring equal pay for men and women in the private sector came into operation on 25th September 2020.
The government of the United Arab Emirates continues to ensure equal opportunity for men and women in the workplace.
The UAE has made significant strides in recent years in its effort to promote gender equality. In 2015, it set up a committee called the ‘Gender Balance Council’, which is responsible to integrate the gender into policies and programmes, in addition implementing the gender balance in the leadership roles of the organizations. This initiative confronted the position of UAE among the countries in the aspect of gender balance.
In 2018, the cabinet of UAE has approved the issuance of a law amendment of Equal Wages and Salaries for Men and Women with the intention to provide equal opportunities. In fact, UAE needs to empower women to lead the future UAE development to lead the future national strategies. This is also a part of the women empowerment of Emirti women launched by the government. As part of narrowing down the gender gap, UAE strives to ensure the rights and protection to support their role in the process of national development.
Does UAE released Gender Balance Guide
In the year of 2017, a gender balance guide was launched by Gender Balance Council, which states the actions to be performed by the UAE organizations. The guide recommends the following actionable points for the organization to keep check on the gender balance. They are:
- Implement an oversight and commitment for the gender balance
- Integration of gender related policies and programme
- Execute transparent gender sensitive information
- Employee engagement towards the gender balance
- Implementation of gender balance in the leading positions
UAE’s law based on equal wages for women and men
The UAE cabinet passed the law on equal wages and salaries for men and women, in 2018. This law clarifies the government’s objective in ensuring women equality and support in the process of empowering them. The national development strategies include the initiatives of empowerment of Emirati Women launched by the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation. If the performance of a woman matches that of the others, she shall be given equal wages. According to Article 32 of the UAE labour law, the government strives to promote and empower the social inclusions.
Do you know the other protection measures for working women?
Special provisions for women employees was laid down by the UAE’s labour law under the article 27 to 34. Listed here are the few noteworthy provisions.
- Women shall not be employed between the time 10:00 PM and 07:00 AM with the sector exceptions such as healthcare, technical and administrative services
- Women shall be entitled to all sort of maternity benefits
- Women shall not be entitled to the same wage or any kind of physically challenging jobs
- Women shall be entitled to same wage that a man would earn for the same job
From 2018 labor law to the latest labor law, HRBluSky updates all the HR professionals of UAE with the industry trend and the government amendments.