UAE, Mar 31 (Emirates 24|7): A minimum salary rule will be applied by the Ministry of Labour to three categories of employees, provided they have a secondary school certificate or a higher educational certificate, local Arabic daily Al Khaleej has reported.

Ministry officials said the private sector workers are grouped into five skilled labour categories, adding that employees of the first category should be university graduates and should receive a minimum monthly salary of Dh12,000.

The second category include technicians who should receive not less than Dh7,000, while the third are skillful labourers who must be paid at least Dh5,000, provided they have a secondary school certificate.

According to the report, the latest ministry regulations followed requests by a number of   employees wishing to change their jobs for higher salary and other reasons.

The report states that many of the applications were rejected because they did not meet the necessary conditions. The Ministry has also said it had agreed on bringing labour from outside the UAE as long as all labour conditions are met.

The report quoted the ministry as saying it will not give new labour permits to employees in case the salary they will receive in the new company is less than what the ministry has previously decided.

In such a case, they will have approval six months after the cancellation of the old labour card.

To be given a labour permit, the qualifications of the employees should suit the nature of the job, it said.