6

Friday
November 28 - December 4
2014

Employment & NRI Times

Saudi varsities to hire

foreign professors
JEDDAH: Undersecretary for Educational Affairs at the
Ministry of Higher Education Dr Mohammed Al-Ohaly has
confirmed that Saudi universities will continue to hire foreign academics due to the need for various experiences and
expertise. He pointed out that the scholarship programme
sends students to 24 countries which require a high quality of exchange of experience for Saudi students on these
programmes. The public and private universities prioritise
social responsibility among students to help them contribute to their families, community and the homeland. At the
same time, the concept of social responsibility has begun
to take on a wider and a more diverse meaning in Saudi
universities, Al-Ohaly said during a session of the Corporate Social Responsibly Forum in Jeddah.
Stressing the importance of higher education in the Kingdom, he said: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
King Abdullah has raised the financial budget of the education sector as part of the national strategy to develop the
knowledge community which requires advanced knowledge and skills provided by foreign human resources.

US immigration reforms

he United States is known as a great nation of im

migrants, including illegals, and this issue is as
old as the country itself. President Barack Obamas
executive action to initiate the controversial immigration
reforms, stalled in the Congress, is mostly about coming
to terms with illegal entrants who have been in the country for a long time. A brief part of it deals with making it
easier for technically qualified people to remain in the
US, add to its knowledge and skills, innovate and create
value. It is this aspect that bothers the Indian IT firms.
Their current business model depends on them being able
to send knowledge workers to the US to serve the 60pc of
their market that is based there. No doubt, for the Indian
IT firms and techies there is some relief. Two basic changes
are that henceforth, holders of H-1B visa who have applied for a work permit or citizenship will be able to change
jobs (thus reducing exploitation by their employers) and
their spouses will be able to
work. The US administration
anticipates four-lakh more
skilled to move in. The Optional Training Programme
for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students is likely to be extended to 36 months
from 24 months. These reforms will not only help students from India but also spouses who quit lucrative jobs
here to join their spouses in the US. The students will
also be able to choose the right career instead of being
pressured into choosing anything that comes their way to
protect their status in the US. They will end up with good
sponsors instead the ones who move faster to process their
H-1Bs. Hyderabad and Mumbai are figured in the Washington-based Brooking Institutions list of the top-10 global cities that send maximum students to the US. True,
the exemption for 20,000 Masters level students from the
regular H-1B quota will allow more beneficiaries to get
the visa. There has always been a special quota of 20,000
for Masters students, excluding the annual regular quota
of 65,000. A combination of a liberal student visa, extended
OPT for STEM students, the exempt quota of 20,000 and
a friendlier Green Card stage will make the US remain as
the top destination for Indian students. Indias interest is
to work for a global regime that facilitates trade in services and lets its skilled people work anywhere in the
world. May it be the Indian IT industry or doctors, the
government has two distinct items on the agenda. The IT
firms, while lobbying for an easier regime for temporary
knowledge workers in the US, have to remain sensitive to
Americas political opinion that sees these as taking away
jobs from locals. It may be recalled that George J Borjas, a
Cuban-American professor of economics at the Harvard
Kennedy School and a recognised immigration scholar,
once wrote: Despite the fact that all of us are immigrants
or descendants of immigrants, American history is
characterised by a never-ending debate over when to pull
the ladder in. This prolific quote holds good even now.
Still, the debate is not going to end here.

Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman had a meeting with US Trade
Representative Michael Froman in New Delhi.

SBI to launch Shariah-compliant MF

Editorial

MUMBAI: State Bank of India (SBI) will launch a

Shariah-compliant mutual
fund in December, the first
time a state-owned bank
will roll out an Islamic financial instrument for the
countrys estimated 170
million Muslim population.
This will make India the
second country outside the
Islamic world to have a stateowned bank making a
Shariah-compliant offering,
after the UK, which in June
issued sovereign Islamic
bonds. An SBI official said
the countrys largest lender
had received all clearances to
launch its Shariah Equity
Fund, including from RBI
and the government. Supporters have long argued for
Shariah-based banking in the
country and the previous

UPA government asked the

SBI to undertake a feasibility
study.
Islamic banks offer financial products such as Sukuk
bonds and equity funds that
dont charge interest, as it is
prohibited in Islam. They treat
investments on the basis of
the performance of their underlying assets, in which both
profits and losses are shared.
They also avoid economic
activity deemed sinful, such
as speculative trading or sale
of intoxicants, such as alcohol. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB),
the countrys apex body on
Shariah law, lent its support
to the move, with AIMPLB
general secretary Maulana
Nizamuddin saying it was not
opposed to the plan if interest was not involved.

Lucknow Eidgah Imam

Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali
said there was general consensus among all Muslim
organisations and welcomed
the plan, saying Islamic banking had been quite successful
in several countries. Since it
is not interest-based and the
customer is also ready to bear
losses, there is nothing wrong
with it, he said, adding there
was no crisis even when during an economic slowdown.
According to consultants
Ernst & Young, global Islamic
banking assets, tapped by
major international bankers
from HSBC to Standard Chartered Bank, were estimated at
$1.8 trillion (about Rs. 112lakh- crore) last year.
Islamic banks generally
escaped the worst effects of
the 2008 financial crisis be-

cause they were not exposed director Mahmoud Mohito sub-prime and toxic as- eldin had said in a research
sets, World Bank managing note last month.

FOR HOME-ALONE ELDERS

Cops act as foster sons

of parents of NRIs
VIJAYAWADA: In a novel and touching initiative,
Vijayawada city police have come out with a plan to ensure the protection of elderly parents of NRIs staying alone
in the city. According to commissioner of police AB
Venkateswara Rao, the police would adorn the role of a
foster son to attend to the home-alone parents of NRIs
staying in this busy city. The police
department has created a page on its
website for NRIs to fill in the details of
their parents who are living in
Vijayawada along with their addresses.
My officials and men would keep in
touch with these elderly people and
extend any kind of help they want. The
details entered in the page would be
Police chief Rao.
kept confidential, Rao said.
As the parents feel lonely since their children are living thousands of miles away, they should have somebody
whom they can trust and share their feelings with. This is
where the police want to step in.
We will help them out in whichever way possible. If
they need any medical help, we will ensure it, he added.
The police officer who interacts with the parents would
also update their status report on Facebook.
This way, we will be acting on behalf of the NRIs to
be of help to their parents. The updates would be available on Facebook account - Vijayawada Protection. The
NRIs could sit back and relax as the police would be taking care of their parents, the police commissioner said.

Changi Airport woos more

passengers form India
BEJING: The Changi Airport
group is seeking to tap potential in the tier II cities of India
and expects some of the airliners flying into India to step
up frequency in the already
connected cities and tap into
new tier II cities. Robin Goh,
Assistant Vice President, Corporate, Changi Airport, said
India is the seventh largest
market for Changi Airport accounting for about 3.2 million
passengers per annum (in
2013) of the 53.7 million passengers it had handled in
2013. Eight airliners operate
380 flights to India per week
and this has potential to go up
due to business travellers and
tourists.
Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad to show-

LIPSYNCH

Do what you can, with what you have and where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt.

EMPLOYMENT & NRI TIMES

Published by Shanti Publications
Regd No. MH/MR/North East/96/2012-2014
Regd. WITH THE RNI UNDER No. 69111/98
MATHEW VARGHESE, Publisher
E. L. VAIDYANATHAN, Chief Editor

case Changi Airport Group in

India, he said flights from
Changi operate into 12 cities
across the country with Delhi,
Kolkata and Mumbai among
major metros followed by
other cities. We believe second tier cities will add to the
volumes in future as more air-

liners operate and existing

ones expand their network,
he said. The Changi Airport
Group, formed in July 2009
following corporatisation of
Singapore Changi Airport, is
the manager of both civilian
airports in Singapore Changi
Airport and Seletar Airport.

Gulf

the Beneficiaries Form and will this stand in the court of

law if any objection is raised by another person or persons who may stake a claim to the entire dues or part of
the dues by virtue of producing some evidence of being a
legal heir of the deceased employee?
It is the sole discretion of an employer to obtain the
beneficiary form from an employee at the time of commencement of employment or at any later date. In the event
the employer obtains such a beneficiary form from an employee, the employer may advise the employee to adhere
to the conditions laid down in Article 149 of Federal Law
No. 8 of 1980 (Labour Law) which states, Where a worker
dies as a result of an employment accident or an occupational disease, the members of his family shall be entitled
to compensation equal to his basic remuneration for 24
months: Provided that the amount of compensation shall
not be less than Dh18,000 or more than Dh35,000 . The
amount of compensation shall be calculated on the basis
of the last remuneration received by the worker before this
death. The compensation shall be distributed among the
deceased workers dependents in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 3 attached to this Law.
For the purposes of the provisions of this article, the
expression deceased workers family means such of the
following persons as were wholly or principally dependent
for their subsistence on the deceased workers income at
the time of his death: (a) the widow or widower; (b) the
children, namely 1. sons who are under 17 years of age
and also sons who are regularly enrolled in educational
institutions and are under 24 years of age or who are mentally or physically incapacitated for earning a living. The
term sons includes the sons of the husband or of the wife
who were in the deceased workers care at the time of his
death; 2. unmarried daughters, which term includes unmarried daughters of the husband or of the wife who were
in the deceased workers care at the time of his death; (c)
the parents;
(d) the brothers and sisters, subject to the conditions
prescribed for sons and daughters. An employer shall apply the above provisions when it comes to payment of the
end-of-service benefits to the legal heirs of the deceased
employee. However, in case the employee has executed a
will or a letter of wishes separately for his or her movable
and immovable properties in the UAE in favour of one or
more persons upon his or her death, the beneficiaries mentioned in the said will or the letter of wishes shall have the
right to claim the end-of-service benefits from the employer,
subject to compliance of all legal procedures including
obtaining a succession certificate.

I was offered a good job by a company in Dubai and I also

got an offer letter. I served my notice period with the previous employer and got my visa cancelled but on the very
first day of my job, the new companys office closed its
VOLUME XVII, ISSUE 31
business for good. The managers number is also switched
Published at: Shanti Publications, 6th floor,
off. Now I am worried what to do in this case?
A Wing, Gundecha Onclave, Khairani Road, Saki-Naka,
It is understood that you were offered employment in
Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400 072. Tel.: 67241663/ 625.
Printed at: Dangat Media Pvt. Ltd., Mehra Centre, Marwah Estate,
Dubai pursuant to which an offer letter was issued to you.
Saki Vihar, Mumbai - 400 072.
Subsequently, you resigned from your previous employwebsite: www.enritimes.com | E-Mail: editorial@enritimes.com
ment and also you got your visa cancelled. But now you
have realised that your prospective employer is not reachable and the offices of the entity have also been shut down.
In view of the foregoing, it may be advised that you may
ABU DHABI: The ministry also be tested during their labour ministry aims at ob- not have a legal recourse against the prospective employer
of labour has announced a stay in the country to docu- taining future labour market in the existing case, since you have not signed any contract
pilot project to train 2,500 ment additional gained skills goals through co-operation with the employer which may give rise to mutual obligaworkers in partnership with in their new workplace. This with concerned government tions, nor can you establish any contact with the company
private companies and gov- would help in facilitating agencies and facilities from as their office is shut down.
My landlord appears to have disappeared or at least
ernment establishments to employment within national the private sector ... to move
help build a world-class facilities with trained and towards the development of he is not answering any emails or phone calls. The date to
skillful workforce.
qualified manpower, which the national economy pay our rent has just passed and I dont know what to do.
Launching the project, will positively affect the na- through cognitive develop- I have a cheque for six months of rent ready to give to
Labour Minister
Saqr tional labour market and ment of the construction sec- him, but am concerned there will be a problem if I cant
Ghobash Saeed Ghobash both sides of the production tor. This would increase the hand it over. What I should do?
The law states that if rent is not paid within 30 days of
said the project was aimed process, the minister fur- productivity of labours and
at building a unified labour ther explained.
help them find decent work the due date, the tenant can be evicted for non-payment,
qualifications and skills recAgreements were also opportunities when they re- even if they have tried to contact the landlord. The soluognition form not only for signed between the ministry turn to their homeland, tion is to contact Real Estate Regulatory Agency and explain the situation. You will then need to take the rent
the country but for the en- and contracting companies Ghobash told reporters.
tire GCC region. The project Arabtec, Al Habtoor, ATI
He also said that through cheque to them with full details and a copy of last years
includes a sample of about Asco and Ghantoot for the the project he hoped that all tenancy agreement. They will hold the cheque until the
2,500 workers who will be project.
labourers in the future landlord responds. This will be deemed to be payment of
recruited randomly from
Ghobash said the project would have their experi- the rent and the tenant will not be considered to be in
major labour-sending coun- went through collaboration ences and qualifications default.
I work in the HR Department of a contracting firm in
tries mainly India, Paki- between the ministry of documented and recognised
stan and the Philippines labour, the National Quali- to fill the jobs, especially the the UAE. The general practice among companies in the
UAE is to have a beneficiary form to be filled by each
to work for national enter- fications Authority, the Fed- blue-collar ones.
prises in the construction eral Demographic Council,
Undersecretary Dr Thani employee when he joins the organisation. This lists out
sector, Ghobash said.
Abu Dhabi Quality, Confor- Al Muhairi explained that the persons who will be paid the end-of-service dues in
The programme also in- mity Council, Zayed Uni- the project is the first of its the event of the death of the employee while in service.
cludes providing the poten- versity and saw the partici- kind globally in terms of the The employee is also given the option to submit an
tial candidates with profes- pation of several national number of participating amended form if and when the status of his beneficiaries
sional trainings in their own and international institu- countries and the interna- changes. (Sometimes this may not be done by an overcountries. Participants in- tions.
tional, regional and local in- sight). I would like to know if it is legally acceptable to
pay the end-of-service dues to the persons nominated in
volved in the project will
Through the project the stitutions.

UAE to select, train 2,500 expat workers