UAE’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently announced that it is working on increasing salaries of employees in the federal government sector and increasing social aid and wages granted to retirees.

This is in line with the decision issued by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the occasion of the UAE’s 40th National Day, according to a statement issued by Younis Haji Al Khouri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance.

The decision specifies that as of January 2012, minimum wages for retires are to be raised to Dh10,000 ($2,722), and salary increases are to be applied to 37950 employees working within the federal sector.

In line with the Royal Decree, MoF created a number of specialised teams from different departments tasked with implementing and preparing the e-programmes and databases required for keeping records of increases.

The Ministry has increased the salaries of doctors and technicians working under the Ministry of Health through raising technical bonuses for Emirati doctors by 100 per cent.

Amendments were also made to the schedules of consultants and to their pay raises. A total number of 7,317 doctors and technicians were targeted.

Employees in the public education sector, including teachers, directors, and principles under the Ministry of Education were also recipients of allowance increases of a 100 per cent. A total of 10,721 employees in the public education sector were targeted for these increases.

The Ministry is currently working on implementing raises for employees within the judicial system, where judges are to receive a 100 per cent increase on their basic salaries.

The increase will be implemented for 392 members of the judicial system. Salaries for 460 employees in the Diplomatic and Consular Corps at Ministry of Foreign Affairs are also to be increased, the statement said.

MoF continues to work in coordination with the Ministry of Social Affairs in order to implement increases for Emirati social aid recipients, in order to ensure that new data is entered onto databases starting from January, 2012. The total number of recipients to be granted increases amounts to 31,564.

Al Khouri also announced that a specialised team has been created to study salaries of employees in independent federal bodies to determine employees to receive increases.

Furthermore, MoF is currently working in coordination with the General Pensions and Social Security Authority to raise minimum wages for retirees from Dh6,000 to Dh10,000 a month, which is to be applied to 21,512 retirees from January 2012.

Al Khouri also indicated that MoF specialists and experts were working on improving mechanisms for salary distributions and social aid tools to ensure data is being recorded and that the process of increases is carried out efficiently and on time. – TradeArabia News Service