Students on university sponsorship programme in the UAE can now legally work part-time upon receiving a permit from the Ministry of Labour under a new decree, a news report has said.

It was previously illegal for students above the age of 18 on university sponsorship to take up work unless they transferred their sponsorship to their employer, added the official.

The decree, issued as part of the UAE Labour Law, says the new part-time work permit regulation went into effect this year and is aimed at protecting students' rights to stop employers exploiting them, a ministry official was quoted by Gulf News as saying.

Dubai: Students on university sponsorship programme in the UAE can now legally work part-time upon receiving a permit from the Ministry of Labour under a new decree, a news report has said.

It was previously illegal for students above the age of 18 on university sponsorship to take up work unless they transferred their sponsorship to their employer, added the official.

The decree, issued as part of the UAE Labour Law, says the new part-time work permit regulation went into effect this year and is aimed at protecting students' rights to stop employers exploiting them, a ministry official was quoted by Gulf News as saying.

The new part-time work permit decree was issued along with the teenage work permit that allows those aged between 15 to 18 to take up work within stringent guidelines.

Nevertheless, before the introduction of the permit some students on university and parental/guardian sponsorship still took up part-time work through temporary promotional jobs that paid cash.

This service grants an establishment a temporary work permit to complete a temporary work or a certain project of a definite period for no more than 90 days, renewable for a similar period on a one-off basis. This permit is processed on the counter immediately without the need for it to be shown to the Work Permit Committee.

• Request for obtaining temporary work permit service.
• Issuance of approval of temporary work permits.
• Obtaining of temporary work card and contract.
• Renewal of temporary work card.
• Cancellation of temporary work permit or card.

• The establishment should keep a record that does not contain any violations and should abide by the provisions of the law and the binding decisions at the time of submission of the application form.
• The establishment should undertake to submit a report in which it undertakes to pay the salaries of its employees on time.
• The establishment's record should contain no previous violations as regards the employment of illegal employees and no group dispute over non-payment of salaries or non-provision of appropriate housing for the employees.
• The establishment's record should not contain labour cards or work permits that have expired for more than 3 months or 6 months respectively.
• The establishment should have a valid licence.
• The establishment's signatories should have an electronic signature card as per the procedures observed at the ministry.
• The establishment should be registered with the ministry-approved map programme.