Changes coming to the UAE in 2023
The United Arab Emirates has long been working to improve its infrastructure at all levels. One of the most important of these, the modernisation of the legal system, will come in 2023, a year in which the UAE will experience many important developments in various sectors. In addition to the changes in the legal system, the strengthening of workers' rights, the increase in Emirati participation in the private sector, and rules of daily life - divorce, inheritance and custody for children of non-Muslim parents, among others - the changes will bring about a qualitative leap in the quality of life in the UAE.
All the changes will come into effect on 1 January, and one can begin by mentioning the improvement in job security for Emirati workers. It is now mandatory for all employees, both in the public and private sectors, to subscribe to the country's social security programme. This acts as an insurance in the event of job loss, and is divided according to each worker's salary. There are two categories, each of which is capped at 16,000 Emirati dirhams - just over 4,000 euros at the exchange rate - per month.
Employees who lose their jobs will receive compensation as long as they have been employed and subscribed to the social security programme for 12 months. However, it is specified that dismissals due to disciplinary reasons or resignation will not benefit from this assistance. The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation mentioned at the beginning of 2022 that this compensation can be enjoyed for three months and that in no case will it exceed 60% of the monthly salary that the worker had in their previous job - a maximum of 10,000 dirhams for those earning less than 16,000 and 20,000 for those in a higher bracket.
In line with these changes in the world of work comes the emiratisation that UAE leaders have been talking about in recent months. Private companies with more than 50 employees will be required to have at least 2% of the national workforce by the end of 2023. If they fail to do so, they will be forced to pay a fine of 72,000 dirhams - almost 20,000 dollars - in January next year for each Emirati worker they fail to hire, or six thousand dirhams a month.
This is just the first step in the emiratisation process that Abu Dhabi is pursuing. By 2026, it is expected that at least 10% of the private sector workforce will come from the UAE itself. To the already growing future of the economy, they want to involve society. While foreign investment is increasing exponentially, there is a desire to have a domestic percentage due to the desire to make its own citizens one of the important pillars of the private sector, a key driver of the UAE's financial growth.
