Sharjah company pays salary to non-working spouses of staff

Our Correspondent

UAE-based company Aries Group which is into marine-related and ship repair services, will be paying non-working wives of staff members a monthly “home salary”, according to a report in The Gulf News. This would be equal to 25 per cent of the working spouse’s take-home package. All employees who have completed three years in the company are eligible for this.

Aries Group has extensive commercial interests in India, particularly in Kerala. Aries, headquartered in Sharjah, currently employs nearly 1,000 people across its UAE operations.

According to Dr. Sohan Roy, Chairman and founder of the Group, the company’s goal “is to ensure whatever the husband now earns as salary, incentive, bonus or as shares, 25 per cent should go to wife” but “without affecting his current salary.”

In the case of women staffers, the company offers a job instead of the home salary if “the husband is unemployed” said Sohan Roy, “But if he is physically unfit to move out, he will get it…”

Aries also offers up to 50 per cent profit as well as stocks to employees. The company introduced a pension for parents of staffers 12 years ago.

On whether he can sustain the home salary scheme for long, Roy said “the intention is to keep making those payments as long as the Group exists.”

Roy has other interests too – he operates multiplexes in India. He directed the movie Dam 999, which was India’s nomination to the foreign films category of the Oscars in 2012.