Students in UAE can work legally with part time work permits

Students on university sponsorship can now legally work part-time upon receiving a permit from the Ministry of Labour under a new decree issued as part of the UAE Labour Law.

The new part-time work permit regulation went into effect this year and is aimed at protecting student rights to stop employers exploiting them, said a ministry official.

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.

The new part-time work permit decree was issued along with the teenage work permit that allows those aged 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.
The part-time work permit applies to four categories of persons:

1. Resident workers in full-time employment holding a valid labour card
2. Co-dependent sponsored residents i.e: housewives on their husband’s sponsorship
3. Residents aged 18 and above
4. Government employees

Those issued with a part-time work permit are not limited to the number of part-time jobs they can take up.

The government can issue a part-time work permit despite the objection of a full-time employer and an individual’s residency status if there is a labour case raised at the courts through the labour ministry.