DEWS stands for the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings Plan. The plan was introduced in February 2020 in line with changes in the DIFC employment law. Those changes meant that employers needed to move their End of Service Gratuity liability management from a defined benefit structure to a funded, professionally managed defined contribution plan. DEWS is the DIFC’s default plan and was chosen after many years of consideration by working groups to transform and reform the way end-of-service benefits (EOSB) were managed and to drive a culture of long-term savings that is aligned to global best practices. It is also thought that a plan, such as DEWS, will become a key factor for retaining and attracting talent in the future.

There are several levels of oversight and governance for the DEWS plan. All parties to the plan (Trustee, Administrator, and Investment Advisor) are regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

The Trustee oversees the plan and ensures that it is operating in accordance with the Scheme documentation (Trust Deed and Scheme Rules).

In addition, there is also a Supervisory Board that has been established to oversee and review the governance and non-regulated duties of the Trustee. The Board meets on a quarterly basis.

The DIFC Supervisory Board is a statutory corporation established by the President of the DIFC that is designed to oversee the operation of the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings (DEWS) Plan. 

What are the responsibilities of the DIFC Supervisory Board? 
At the outset the role of the Supervisory Board was to oversee the establishment of the DEWS Plan and the appointment of the trustee. Now the Plan is up and running, the DEWS Supervisory Board oversee the governance and commercial aspects of the DEWS Plan that are not subject to regulatory supervision. This includes overseeing the governance and non-regulated duties of Equiom, the trustee, in accordance with the Trusteeship Agreement in place. 

Who are the DIFC Supervisory Board Members? 
The first DEWS Supervisory Board members are: 
Hamed Kazim, as the Independent Chair; 
Jacques Visser and Madeya AlKtebi, as DIFC Authority (DIFCA) Representatives; 
Thenji Moyo, as the Employee Representative; and 
Gordon Barr, as the Employer Representative. 

How were the Employer and Employee Representatives selected? 
The DIFC Authority (DIFCA) invited nominations from the DIFC community for these positions. As part of the nomination process for both employee and employer representatives, DIFCA received more than 200 nominations which were then narrowed down to a shortlist of 21 highly qualified and experienced individuals. The final shortlist was then voted on by the DIFC community, which ultimately led to the final selection and appointment of the Board Members. 

What is the role of the Employer and Employee Representative? 
Their role is to ensure that Employees and Employers voices are heard and taken into consideration when the Supervisory Board undertakes its role in respect of the governance and oversight around the non-regulatory aspects of the DEWS Plan.   

How can I contact my Employer/Employee Representative? 
Thenji Moyo, Employee Representative, can be contacted by emailing: c-Thenjiwe.Moyo@dews.ae or tmoyo@gateleyae.com 
Gordon Barr, Employer Representative, can be contacted by emailing: Gordon.Barr@difc.ae

It was crucial for DIFC that the providers selected to manage the DEWS scheme demonstrated outstanding capabilities, a well-tested track record and alignment with international best practices. The process of vendor selection was thorough, and their selection was made after a formal and competitive RFP process. The providers are:

Equiom Fiduciary Services (Middle East) Limited DIFC Branch – the plan Operator/Master Trustee

Zurich Workplace Solutions (Middle East) Limited – the plan Administrator

Mercer Financial Services Middle East Limited – the plan Investment Advisor

As a new company, you need to enrol into DEWS as soon as you have eligible employees. To enrol your company, please follow these steps: 

1. Ensure that you have nominated an authorized signatory for DEWS in your DIFC Client portal by visiting > Company Services > Designate an Authorized Signatory to sign the DEWS Deed of Participation. Should you require further assistance, please reach out to the DIFC Customer Service team for assistance with this on +971 4 362 2222. 
2. Visit our enrolment page - https://my.workplacesolutions.ae/sign-up
3. Complete your personal details – you will be your company’s DEWS administrator moving forward.
4. Search for your company - you must search for the company name as it is written in the DIFC Company Registry as this is where we source our data and if you cannot find your company name it is likely your company registration is not yet complete, or you are not yet listed as ‘Active’.
5. Select your company, check your details, and submit your application.
6. You will receive a confirmation email and will be required to complete the set-up tasks which are:
   • Bank details – provide the full bank details for where your contributions will originate from
   • UBO details* – provide us with the details of the individuals or entities that ultimately own your DIFC registered company
7. Your designated authorized signatory will also receive an email with a link to sign the Deed of Participation which is your company’s legal/contractual agreement with the Trustee to participate in DEWS. This must be signed within 48 hours, or the link will expire, and you will have to reach out to us to re-issue this. If you wish to see a draft copy of the Deed of Participation before registration you will find this in the ‘Documents’ area of our website.
8. Please note that the Master Trustee (Equiom) may contact you post-registration requesting additional due diligence documentation – this is standard procedure, and we would kindly request that you provide your cooperation. If you have any doubts as to the legitimacy of any emails received, please feel free to verify with us.
9. If you have more than one legal entity in the DIFC, you must complete the above steps for each company.

*UBO Details

We would encourage you to consult with your legal/compliance teams, so that you can submit this information accurately. You will need to know: 

• Whether your company is listed or if your company is a majority owned subsidiary of a listed parent company and, if so, on what exchange.
• Whether your company is a Government entity or wholly owned by a Government entity and, if so, the legal name of that entity and country of registration.
• The personal details of all individuals who own or exercise significant control over your company, i.e.
  • Individual holding 25% or more of the shares or ownership in the company
  • Individual holding 25% or more of voting rights in the company
  • Individual holding the right to appoint or remove the majority of the directors of the company
  • Individual having significant control or influence over the company
  • Your company may have more than one UBO

Employees should only be enrolled into DEWS once they have successfully completed their probation period. If probation is successfully completed, the employer must make the back payment of contributions from the employment start date. If the probation is not successful, then no payment is due. If the employer made a payment during probation and the probation is not successful, the employee will still be entitled to this.

Examples:

1. Employee starts probation on 1st June for 3 months. Employer makes no contribution. Employee is confirmed on 1st September. Employer should make a retrospective contribution for June, July, and August as one lump sum before 21st September to DEWS.
2. Employee starts probation on 1st June for 3 months. Employer makes no contribution. Employee is not confirmed after probation. Employer should not make any payment to DEWS.
3. Employee starts probation on 1st June for 3 months. Employer makes monthly contributions to DEWS for June, July, and August. Employee is not confirmed on 1st September and employment is terminated. The employee will be entitled to the contributions paid.

Once you are ready to enrol your employees, you can do this by completing and uploading our ‘upload file’ into the DEWS online portal. The upload file and supporting guidance documents can be found in the Documents area. The upload file should be completed with the details of all eligible employees and if any retrospective contributions are due, they should be included as one lump sum in the ‘EmployerContributionAmount’ column.

When the file is ready, save in csv format and upload this into the DEWS online portal by logging in and visiting Main Menu > Contributions and Payroll > Upload employees and contributions.

If you encounter any errors i.e., you see ‘Fail’ or ‘Errors Detected’ during the upload process please click to view and refer to our error guide in the Documents area to troubleshoot, make any amendments and re-upload your file again.

When your file shows as ‘Success’ all your employees have been enrolled, their contributions have been created and the upload process is finalised. You can then proceed with your contribution payment.

You can verify this by visiting Menu > Contribution and Payroll > Contributions. The total amount when filtered to the current monthly pay period should match with the amount in the uploaded file. You can also extract a contribution report as a .csv or.xls file.

DIFC companies have a legal requirement to register into a qualified plan like DEWS, enrol their employees and pay in end of service benefits to be compliant with DIFC Employment Law.

DEWS is for any DIFC registered company with active employees, from small coffee carts to large multinational banks. All sizes and industries are eligible.

All full or part-time DIFC employees who are subject to a DIFC contract of employment or DIFC visa (including Golden Visa) and who are receiving a basic salary should be enrolled after they have successfully completed their probation period, or immediately upon hire if no probation period applies.

Assumed exemptions - no exemption application to be completed

There are some exemptions for individual employees, which include those who are:

• (a) required to be registered with the GPSSA under Article 65(1).
• (b) referred to in Article 4(2)(a), (b) and (c) as follows:
  • (a) the Employee is working in or from the DIFC on the basis of a Secondment; 
  • (b) the Employee is employed in the DIFC by a local or federal government entity established by decree (or similar instrument) in the UAE, except for those established pursuant to the DIFC Founding Law; or (c) the President has exempted the Employee's Employer from being subject to this Law.
• (c) serving a notice period under Article 62 on 1 February 2020;
• (d) employed under a fixed term Employment Contract that will end within three (3) months of 1 February 2020; or
• (e) an Equity Partner, provided that an Equity Partner is only an Exempted Employee to the extent that they make drawings from a partnership, equity, capital, or profit account of the Employer or receive profit distributions or dividends from their Employer. 

Please refer to the DIFC Employment Law for additional definitions.

Business owners who draw a basic salary are not exempt under point (e) above.

If you are a DIFC registered company that does not have any employees, then you do not have to enrol your company.

Individuals who are not in receipt of a basic salary are not required to be enrolled into DEWS, but employers can choose to do so if they would like to offer the employee the additional benefit. They should be added as ‘MemberType – 2’.

Non-assumed exemptions - exemption application to be completed

• Where the company is under a statutory duty in another country to make pension, retirement, saving or any substantially similar contributions into a scheme in such other country in respect of an Employee.
• Where the company is paying defined benefits to an Employee under a Group scheme where the defined benefits are in excess of the value of the Core Benefits required to be contributed in favour of Employees under Article 66(7) of the Law and where the Group scheme is available in 4 or more countries.

These exemptions cannot be assumed i.e., there is an exemption process to follow. Requests are to be submitted and renewed annually through the DIFC client portal. Employers must log in and visit Service requests > Employee services > Savings scheme services > DEWS exemption request and will see three options:

• Add – to create a new exemption request – $500 fee payable
• Amend – to amend an existing exemption request – no fees payable
• Cancel – where the exemption no longer applies – no fees payable

Exemption queries and applications should be sent to qualifyingscheme@difc.ae. DEWS is not involved in the review/issuance of exemptions and will be unable to discuss any related matters.

Where you are uncertain on eligibility or exemptions, please seek advice from the DIFC or through your normal legal channels.  The information above may be subject to change.

Once enrolled, employers are required to make mandatory contributions into the plan for all eligible employees. The level of contributions will depend on an employee’s basic salary and their length of service.

• For employees with less than 5 years’ service, contributions must be paid at a rate of 5.83% of an employee’s basic salary
• For employees with 5 years’ service or more, contributions must be paid at a rate of 8.33% of an employee’s basic salary

Please refer to the DIFC Employment Law for basic salary requirements and definitions.

This amount is payable by the company in addition to salary and should not be deducted from the employee’s salary.

The percentages noted above are the minimum required by law and employers can over-contribute at their discretion to enhance their benefits and rewards package.

All contribution values should be rounded to the nearest 2 decimal places. Contributions and Earnings should always be entered in your upload file in USD and the exchange rate for converting AED to USD is 1 USD = 3.6735 AED.

Contributions must be made at the frequency that the employee receives their salary, and the payment deadline is the 21^st day of the month following payroll i.e., if calculating for the August payroll period (1^st August to 31^st August), contributions must be paid before 21^st September. Do note that this deadline is for payment to be credited into the trustee bank account and fully reconciled. It is therefore advisable that the contribution file be uploaded before making the payment and that payment be made with sufficient time to make any corrections, if needed.

For simplicity and cost neutrality, the minimum employer contribution rates under DEWS have been designed to broadly match minimum accrual rates under the previous end-of-service benefit system i.e., 21 and 30 days as a percentage proportion of a year.

Pro-rata 

If an employee leaves or joins mid-month, contributions are calculated on the pro-rata basic salary for that month. 

If an employee crosses from less than 5 years’ service to more than 5 years’ service mid-month, the proportion of the month less than 5 years will be calculated at 5.83% and the proportion of the month more than 5 years will be calculated at 8.33%. Divide the monthly basic salary by the number of days in the month for calculation purposes. In the ‘EmployerContributionPercent’ column of your upload file specify 8.33 as this is the percentage that applies at the end of the payroll period in question. 

Leave 

Contributions are still payable on basic salary where an employee is on unpaid vacation leave or maternity leave.

Employers have three options: 

1. Continue to manage this liability as you have done in the past. If this option is chosen, at service termination the employer is liable to pay the employee the accrued end of service benefits in line with the period of service as at 31st January 2021 and the salary at termination. 
2. The employer can transfer the accrued end of service benefits into DEWS with employee consent. The employer can get written consent from the employee and transfer an agreed amount, that is no less than the entitlement calculated under DIFC Employment Law, into the DEWS Plan. In doing so, the employer is no longer liable for the payment of the accrued end of service benefits to the employee when employment is terminated nor any further top-ups in line with any future salary increases and/or length of service. In turn, the employee agrees the employer’s liability is fully met and accepts the ongoing investment risk (noting the resulting benefit may be less than if a transfer had not been taken). The employee can view and manage this money through their online DEWS account. We have a template transfer consent form on our website that you can tailor/use to receive transfer requests from your employees and you can find this in the Documents area of our website.
3. The employer can transfer the accrued end of service benefits into DEWS without employee consent. This would be paid into the DEWS Plan and held in an account in the employer’s name. The assets will be held in trust by Equiom. The company can decide how the amount is to be invested and retains full control. The employer would still be liable for settling each employee’s end of service benefit entitlement when they leave service and can take withdrawals from the employer account for this purpose. This account can also be topped up as accruals rise in line with salary increases.
 

For employers, the only fees incurred will be the bank charges applied by their bank to send the monthly contribution payment to the DEWS bank account, owned by Equiom, as the Master Trustee of the plan.

Employees are subject to an annual percentage-based fee which is designed to be fair and equitable to all members, regardless of seniority or salary. The fees vary depending on which investment fund, or a combination thereof, an employee selects. For the latest fee information, we would encourage employees to check the individual fund factsheets which are updated monthly and held in the DEWS online portal. Fees are built into the unit price of the investment funds and are deducted proportionately on a daily basis, so when employees refresh their valuation on the online portal, fees have already been taken into consideration.

More details on fees can be found in the Annual Charges summary for each Fund Manager located in the "Documents Section under Investments".

Employees will also be subject to a bank charge when withdrawing their benefits upon leaving service (or when withdrawing whilst in service if the employee is making additional voluntary contributions and chooses to withdraw from this). The bank charge will vary depending on the payment amount, currency, and destination.

*The Master Trustee: An establishment operating in the Emirate, including in a Special Development Zone or in a free zone, such as the DIFC, to manage and operate a Scheme and to invest Contributions and end-of-service gratuities of Employees.

• Low Growth Fund
• Low/Moderate Growth Fund(Default)
• Moderate Growth Fund
• Moderate/High Growth Fund
• High Growth Fund

• Emirates NBD Islamic Money Market Fund (Sharia compliant)
• Franklin Templeton Global Sukuk Fund (Sharia Compliant)
• Mercer Short Duration Global Bond Fund 1
• HSBC Global Islamic Equity Index Fund (Sharia Compliant)
• Mercer Passive Global Equity Fund

Employers and Employees can access the DEWS online platform via a web browser. Employees can download our app. 

Employers should make necessary changes to systems to facilitate: 

• The monthly contribution upload and payment process 
• The additional voluntary contribution and accrued transfer request process for employees 

The employer should:

1. Include the employee’s final contribution(s) in the upload file,
2. Insert an exit date into your upload file.
3. Remove the employee’s work email address in the upload file and replace this with their personal email address.
4. Take the opportunity to check all other personal information is up to date i.e., residential address, phone number etc.
5. Arrange your monthly contribution payment as normal.
6. Pay out any accrued end of service benefits from before DEWS was introduced to the employee as part of their final settlement or provide them with the option to transfer this into DEWS if they will be choosing to remain invested (if applicable).

Once you have done this and uploaded the file into the online portal, an email will automatically be issued to the employee advising them of their options and next steps. Employees have the option to remain invested or to take a withdrawal.

DEWS will then liaise with the employee to complete their withdrawal if requested. There is no further action required from the employer and there is no vesting so employees will always be entitled to 100% of the invested benefit.

We have a leaver guide in our Documents page.

In the first instance, please contact us with the name of the employee, the date the employee passed away, and any details you may have on your systems in respect of the employee’s next of kin/beneficiaries.

You must then follow the steps in our Leaver Guide to notify us of the employee’s death by inserting ‘Death’ as the exit reason and including their last day with your organization as the exit date.

We will then coordinate with you, the Trustee, and the beneficiaries for any additional requirements.

We are deeply sorry for your loss and remain available to support you throughout this difficult time.

Once the employer has confirmed the employee's death, the death in service process will begin, which involves identifying the beneficiaries and obtaining due diligence to verify their identities and the death. The requirements for verification are as follows:

1. Suitably certified or original certificate of death
2. Suitably certified Proof of Identity e.g. Passport or Emirates ID card
3. Suitably certified Proof of Address e.g. DEWA Bill
4. Picture of the beneficiary holding their proof of identity
5. Fully completed Beneficiary Claim Form (please contact us for a copy of this form)

Once the necessary due diligence is obtained, the employee’s account will be disinvested, and the cash will be sent by bank transfer as instructed by the beneficiaries. This can be both locally and internationally.

In some cases, the employee may have expressed their wishes via our beneficiary nomination feature in the online portal. If no nomination is available, we will contact the employer for further assistance.

Employees are permitted to withdraw from the DEWS plan upon termination of service should they wish to do so. They may also choose to remain invested. The current withdrawal process is as follows:

The employer notifies DEWS of a terminating employee by entering an ‘Exit Date’ in the upload file containing the employee’s final contribution.

DEWS sends an automated email to the employee, once the upload file is successful, confirming that they are eligible to withdraw their benefits.

Should the employee wish to withdraw they can submit their request and documentation online through their DEWS account.

Our team will begin processing the disinvestment once the employee’s final working day has passed.

Once monies are received back from the disinvestment, they will be sent to the employee's nominated bank account by bank transfer. Withdrawals requested in AED will be subject to the exchange rate applicable at the time of transfer. Any bank charges will be deducted from the payment i.e., they are paid by the employee and withdrawals requested in AED often carry a much lower bank charge than withdrawals requested in USD. After disinvestment, it takes approximately 7 working days for the payment to be transferred to the employee’s bank account.

• Employees and Contributions
  Employers can view and download a list of their employees and contributions per employee directly from the portal through our exports feature.
• DEWS Charges
  The DEWS charges are the same for all members and details of the fees for each fund can be found on the fund factsheets, which are available on the website by navigating to ‘Documents’ and then ‘Investments’
• Investment profit/ loss
  Employee investment profits and losses cannot be viewed by employers. Only employees can view their account valuations at the current market value. They will also receive annual benefit statements outlining their investment performance.  

Employee details are amended by the process of overwriting i.e., you change the details in your next upload file and those new details will replace the old details when you upload the file into the system. There are however some exceptions to this rule. Please review the table below for details on how to amend specific employee details.

If you need to change an employee’s personal details in between your monthly uploads you can do this using our simplified upload file which you will find in the Documents area of our website.

You can view and amend who within your organization receives DEWS communications by logging into the online portal and visiting Main Menu > Company details > Notification Centre. To remove someone, click the X alongside their email address – note that the same person may appear twice under the different communication categories. To add a new person, type their email address in the appropriate line and hit enter to submit.

Please note that even if you remove your plan authorized signatory from these sections, we are still required to email them where we identify that contributions are 60 days overdue.

• Processing – upload in progress, wait for 5-10 minutes, if you see no progress then contact us.
• Fail – your whole file has failed. Please click view to understand why and review our ‘error messages’ tab 1. Make appropriate amendments and re-upload your file.
• Errors detected – your file has been partially successful. Please click view to understand why and review our ‘error messages’ tab 2. Then make appropriate amendments and re-upload your file.
• Success - your upload is complete.

The app is designed for employees and is available on the App Store for Apple devices and Google Play for Android. You can download the app by clicking on the below links. We would suggest activating your account on your desktop device first and then logging in via the app.

When downloading the Zurich for DEWS app you will be presented with an option to enable ‘biometrics’. Biometrics is your way of accessing the Zurich for DEWS app quickly and securely by verifying your identity through fingerprint or facial recognition, rather than manually entering a password. If you would like to use biometrics you can click ‘Set Biometric ID’ and if you would prefer not to, you can click ‘No Thanks’. Should you subsequently wish to deactivate biometrics, you can do so in the ‘Security’ section of the app by moving the ‘Biometric ID’ slider to the left.

When you log in to the app you will be taken to your portal dashboard. From here you can start to manage your plan. Swipe to view your contribution summary, your to-do list, a message from your employer, your fund options, and your security options. You can also navigate the app either by clicking the options at the bottom of the screen or from the main menu.

On the DEWS app you can:

• View your contributions
• Request a valuation of your funds
• View your personal details
• Nominate your beneficiaries
• Manage your investment strategy
• Set your security and biometric preferences
• Find useful links to the Investment Guide and Fund Factsheets

Log into your online DEWS account and visit Account > Nomination of Beneficiaries. You then have two options depending on your preferences:

1. Opt to have your benefits paid in accordance with Sharia Law by selecting the first tick box; or
2. Opt to nominate specific individuals by selecting the second tick box. Then click ‘Add new’ to open a form to provide the individual’s personal details and percentage. You can do this as many times as required.

Please ensure that you keep your beneficiary nomination up-to-date, particularly in line with any life events. You can delete beneficiaries by editing your existing submission. 

This submission ensures that we can distribute your benefits in line with your wishes in the unfortunate event of your death and to support your loved ones throughout the process. We would therefore strongly encourage you to ensure this is completed.

The ‘Tax Information’ section on your online account enables us to collect the necessary information from you to fulfil our Automatic Exchange of Information (AEI) reporting obligations.

Log into your online DEWS account and visit Account > Security Options

No. The Zurich for DEWS app can only be used to view your DEWS account.