CHENNAI: Companies in the Gulf hiring blue collar Indian workers and nurses have to adhere to a new set of rules put in place from Monday by the Union government.

It will now be mandatory for foreign employers to register on the government’s eMigrate system through the website and get clearance from the Indian diplomatic missions which will clear the registration application. This can also be done through approved recruitment agents.

Overseas recruitment of Indian nurses will now only be through three state-run recruiting agencies. They are Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs Department (Norka-ROOTS), Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants Ltd, both in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and Overseas Manpower Corporation Limited.

Welcoming the move, Indian consul general in Jeddah B S Mubarak told TOI over telephone on Monday, “The new rule will help Indian workers, and prevent exploitation. Everything contractual will be transparent and will help Indian workers. It is now mandatory for foreign employers to register on Indian government website,” Mubarak said.

The envoy said the new rules on recruitment of Indians are applicable for workers who have the emigration clearance required (ECR) stamp on their passports as per the eMigrate system introduced to bring in more transparency in the recruitment procedures and to eliminate exploitation of employees. Foreign employers are required to declare the terms and conditions of employment of each category at the time of applying for the demand registration.

“The declared terms and conditions of employment will act as a specimen contract and will form the part of employment contract at the time of actual recruitment,” a press release from the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi said.

In the case of nurses, after the registration on the site, employers can raise the demand for nurses on the eMigrate system with terms and conditions of their employment. “With this, no further attestation of demand would be required from the Indian missions,” it said.

The mission also announced the last dates for foreign employers to register online depending on the number of employees they plan to recruit.

“Foreign employers recruiting more than 150 workers are required to register online with immediate effect in order to raise demand and seek a permit to recruit directly or select recruitment agents,” it said.

Foreign employers recruiting between 50-150 workers are required to register online before June 30, while those recruiting 20-50 and less than 20 Indian workers are required to register online before July 31 and August 31, respectively.

“In addition, a provision for applying for permit from the registering authority in the ministry of overseas Indian affairs is available online for foreign employers who wish to recruit workers directly. Foreign employers can do so after getting registered in the eMigrate system with immediate effect,” the embassy said.

Though emigration clearance has been made mandatory for nurses to end several malpractices reported in their recruitments, the mission said the minimum age restriction of 30 years imposed on all women employees emigrating on ECR passports irrespective of nature or category of employment will not be applicable in case of nurses.

Mubarak said the idea is to make the whole process of recruitment systematic, easier, transparent and convenient for both the employer and employee.