Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - United Arab Emirates (Ratification: 1998)

Article 6 of the Convention. Minimum age for admission to apprenticeship. The Committee previously urged the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that the draft amended section 42 of the Labour Code was adopted in the very near future to raise the minimum age for admission to apprenticeship from 12 to 15 years as required under the Convention.

The Committee notes with satisfaction the adoption of Ministerial Decree No. 519 of 2018 concerning the Regulations and Conditions of Training and Employment of Students enclosed with the Government’s report which provides that “Any establishment is permitted to recruit students aged 15 years and above during their annual academic holidays, for a period that does not exceed three consecutive months each time” (section 1). Section 3 also provides that training shall not affect children’s health or attendance at school and that the employer shall obtain a written consent from the student’s parent or legal guardian and that the student shall provide a copy of his/her Emirates identity card as verification of his age, accompanied by a certificate of physical fitness or a declaration from the student’s parent to this effect. Lastly, section 4 stipulates that the student shall obtain a no-objection certificate from the educational institute in which he/she is enrolled and that the employer shall conclude a training contract with the trainee clarifying the nature of work, its duration, the student’s wage, weekly holiday and the number of daily working hours, which shall not exceed more than six hours per day, interspersed with one hour of rest.