Labour Card

The labour card is the identity credential historically issued by MOHRE to each foreign employee as physical proof of the right to work for a named mainland employer. Today it survives mostly in digital form — the work permit record linked to the employee's file in MOHRE systems and retrievable through the ministry's apps — but the term is still used everywhere in practice: PROs speak of 'labour card numbers' when processing transfers, banks and landlords sometimes request it as employment proof, and labour-court filings cite it to establish the employment relationship and its dates. For employees, checking the labour card record is the quickest way to confirm what job title, employer, and contract the ministry actually has on file, which frequently differs from what was verbally promised — a discrepancy that matters in wage and gratuity disputes.