In this respect, HE Aisha Al Suwaidi, Executive Director of HR Policies Sector at FAHR, said that the Legal Consultation Team at the Authority dealt with 9100 consultancy requests and enquiries submitted by the above-mentioned parties since its constitution in 2010, including 2153 during 2018 alone. The breakdown was as follows: 1914 consultations from ministries and federal entities, and 239 from local governments, private organizations and members of the public.

66% of inquiries via Consultancy Team’s Email

Aisha Al Suwaidi noted that 58% of the legal enquiries submitted to FAHR in 2018 were delivered via the Consultancy Team’s email address: legal@fahr.gov.ae , while 13% were received through the Unified Call Centre, and 13% via Online Support Service Office. She noted that FAHR received 2401 legal consultation requests in 2017, compared to 1376 in 2016, 1153 in 2015, 850 in 2014, and 320 in 2013.

According to Al Suwaidi, most of these enquiries focused on appointment, contracts, allowances, transfer, delegation, loan, promotions, leaves, workplace violations, official working hours, termination of service, etc.

She said that 471 (22%) of the total inquiries submitted by employees of federal ministries and entities focused on leaves of different types in the Federal Government, compared to 447 for allowances and bonuses.

Health and Education employees at the top

Executive Director of HR Policies revealed that the Ministry of Health and Prevention registered the highest demand for legal advice services during 2018, with 271 enquiries, followed by the Ministry of Education with 173, and Higher Colleges of Technology in third place with 117 enquiries.

For his part, Hamad Buamim, Director of HR Policies, said: “The in-house consultancy team usually studies the enquiries submitted by employees of the ministries and federal bodies regarding Federal Government human resources laws, regulations, legislations and policies, in order to unify legal opinions on all issues presented to FAHR and to document for the legal principles and simplify work procedures in the future”.

He emphasized the Authority’s keenness to simplify the communication mechanism for federal ministries and entities wishing to obtain legal advice with the legal consultation team, through providing more than 12 different communication channels with the team. These channels include the Authority’s website: www.fahr.gov.ae , email address, Smart App. (FAHR), Remedy System, Robotic Process Automation (RPA),  Ask a Legal Expert. social media (Twitter), official correspondence, legal clinics, live chat, which aims at providing direct contact with all employees with the feature of immediate response to enquiries in addition to the free toll number 600525524 and fax 04/2953444.

It should be noted that FAHR had formed a legal consulting team as part of its keenness to create a sound legal culture among the employees of ministries and federal agencies about human resource legislation, policies and regulations applied in the Federal Government, by responding to inquiries and questions related to legal issues.

HE also revealed that the Authority recently launched the HR business partners’ project in the Federal Government, under which a team of the Authority staff will be set up to provide services in the form of packages to ministries and federal agencies in its capacity as a specialized business partner in human resources.

He explained that the HR business partners’ project in the Federal Government aims to develop a mechanism of action that supports proper implementation of human resources policies, regulations and legislation, as well as meet the needs of the Authority’s customers and improve performance and productivity of ministries and federal entities.