Firms looking to recruit teams of workers into the UAE from abroad will be able to extend group work permits that have expired, under a procedure approved by the UAE’s ministry of labour.??

The move is intended to assist employers whose projects have been delayed due to the global economic downturn.??

Hamid bin Demas, the ministry’s acting director-general, told Emirates website Emirates Business 24 7 that the measure, which was not allowed before, would be useful for companies wishing to extend the timetables of their projects until conditions improve.??

Demas added that the measure would apply to all companies that have 50 workers but firms wishing to extend permits must provide evidence to prove they are continuing to pay their workers’ salaries.?

But Cliff Kemp, managing director at Duke and Attwood, a construction staffing firm that operates in the region, told Recruiter that while there were benefits for employers, the move was not all good news for recruiters.

“A huge percentage of projects that started four months ago have been put on hold. Placements have stopped or frozen or been suspended. These projects are going to have to come back online. The cost implication of recruiting again from scratch for these half-done projects will be prohibitive.

“As a recruiter, it is not beneficial to us because when these projects come back online we want to find new people. The fact that they would have a ready-made workforce is not great for us.”