UAE Public Prosecution announces investigation into private sector CEO

The United Arab Emirate’s Public Prosecution announced Saturday that it is investigating the CEO of a private sector company for publishing an unskilled job advertisement for Emiratis.

In a social media post shared on its official page, the public prosecution said that the job ad has broken “both Emiratization regulations and media content standards as it included contentious content”, state news agency WAM reported.

The federal investigation department clarified that it had spotted the controversial advertisement, in which the suspected company was announcing a job vacancy for Emiratis.

No details about the company, or the CEO, was revealed.

According to WAM, the ad content violated the provisions of Ministerial Resolution No. 279 of 2022 on Monitoring Mechanisms of Emiratization Rates in the Private Sector.

The Federal Prosecution for Countering Rumours and Cybercrimes has launched an immediate investigation into the incident and is interrogating the CEO of the business on the allegations made against him.

The Attorney General requested that the probe be finished promptly, urging private sector businesses to adhere to the controls and instructions outlined in Ministerial Resolution 279 and increase the number of Emiratis employed by the private sector in order to activate its role as a key partner in developing the labor market and advancing the country’s economic development.

It comes weeks before new Emiratization rules come into force.

By January 1, 2023, companies with more than 50 employees must ensure two percent of their staff are Emirati under a government drive to encourage more citizens to enter the sector.

Any employer that fails to reach the target will have to pay a fine of about $20,000 in January for each Emirati worker they fail to hire.