A/HRC/14/43/Add.3 institutions to pay workers’ wages via banks and allowing the Ministry of Labour to verify the timely and full payment of wages; the increasing number of inspections and follow-up visits carried out at labour and accommodation sites; the enhancement of transportation means for workers between their accommodation and working sites; as well as the introduction in April 2007 of a standard employment contract for domestic workers. 35. The Special Rapporteur also would like to welcome the enactment of Ministerial resolution No. 335 of 2008 which states that labourers should not stay under the sun during the hottest hours in July and August; working hours for labourers should not exceed eight working hours daily; working sites should provide cold drinking water and juices, cooling devices, shades protecting from the sun, as well as first aid kits; and that companies breaking Ministerial resolution No. 335 shall be penalized.6 36. In addition, the Special Rapporteur would like to highlight the adoption of a “Manual of the General Criteria for the Workers’ Accommodations” by the Federal Council of Ministers in its Decision No. 13 of 2009. The manual includes a set of standards to be applied in the next five years by employers in accommodation complexes and should therefore support the ongoing enhancement of housing conditions for construction workers. In this context, the Special Rapporteur very much welcomes the near completion of the sewage system in Sonapur (Dubai), as well as the plans to build a sewage system to ease the growing sewage problems in the industrial area of Al Qoz (Dubai) which have caused health hazards to some of the 150,000 workers living there. 37. Yet the Special Rapporteur would like to recall that construction and domestic workers still face a number of significant difficulties. These include the sponsorship or “kafala” system which places foreign workers, in particular those who are unskilled, in a highly dependent relationship vis-à-vis their employer and at severe risk of exploitation. Indeed, at present, foreign workers’ legal ability to enter, live and work in the United Arab Emirates depends on a single employer. This system makes it extremely difficult for foreign workers to escape from this dependency after entering the country or beginning employment. Although foreign workers are entitled to transfer their contracts to another company if they file a lawsuit against their employer or if their wages are not paid on time, in practice, it seems complicated to do so. 38. The withholding of passports is another issue of concern since it prevents the enjoyment of one’s right to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s country. Despite the fact that it was officially acknowledged as an illegal practice,7 the confiscation of passports of unskilled foreign workers continues to be widely resorted to by employers in order to prevent workers from absconding, to ensure that they cannot change employers and to obstruct them from filing a complaint. The Special Rapporteur was informed that in fact the system of sponsorship described above gives employers incentives to confiscate passports since the employers may be fined if their workers are discovered working for other employers. 39. The Special Rapporteur also received reports indicating that unskilled foreign workers were afraid to form trade unions or to go on strike due to the risk of being fired or deported.8 There are indeed no specific domestic laws protecting the right of workers to organize and to bargain collectively or to freedom of association. There are therefore no 6 7 8 GE.10-12576 It must be noted that some of the provisions of Ministerial resolution No. 335 were already included in Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 on regulation of labour relations. Ruling by Dubai Court of Cassation, Case No. 268 (2001), 27 October 2001. According to article 120 of Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 on regulation of labour relations, “an employer may dismiss a worker without notice if the worker absents himself from work without a valid reason for more than 7 consecutive days or more than 20 non-consecutive days in one year”. 11