Special fund helps workers access support in times of labour disputes
Abu Dhabi: Indian workers with difficulties stemming from labour disputes can access a special Indian Community Welfare Fund to provide legal assistance.
It is the discretion of the Indian Ambassador to extend such assistance to the needy, Vayalar Ravi, Indian Overseas Affairs Minister, said in Abu Dhabi in a meeting with Indian community members at the Indian Social and Cultural Centre (ISC).
He noted that the ambassador or the embassy has the authority to direct funds where it is deemed best to help the needy.
People gathered at the meeting that there are Indian workers who are unable to go back home or are jailed due to alleged false cases filed by their employers following labour disputes.
“The embassy can engage lawyers using the welfare fund to bail them out of jail and fight their cases legally,” Ravi said.
In an addess to community members, Ravi said that when the fund was set up a few years ago, it was intentionally designed to be at arm’s length from government channels in order to speed up access to funds in dire cases.
The minister was referring to Dh500,000 already given from the fund for the construction of a crematorium in Sharjah for Indian community members.
The Government of India has put on hold a new direct tax code, which proposed new taxation on Indian expatriates subject to certain conditions like the duration of stay in India.
“It has been put on hold for another three years but all of you have to put pressure on the Indian Government without waiting for three years until it is taken up again.”
He said the pressure from his side was not enough to block such government moves.
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