Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

Hi everybody,

I'm currently facing a very big problem with my (ex) employer.

I used to work in Dubai last year and was issued a residence visa. Everything went well until the company decided to stop my activities because of lack of benefits. I'm still in contact with the owner and I left in very good terms.

I joined another company in Abu Dhabi but since october I've been facing a lot of problems:

- Accomodation was part of the contract but I had to wait 4 months to actually get one. He didn't gave me the money, he just rented a room in a shared flat. I'm a single european male and I was sharing a flat with arabic ladies which is totaly forbidden.

- My salary: he never gave me what he promised. The last two months, he cut my salary by 30%.

- It as a webdesign company and I actually had to pay for the internet connection the last 3 months to be able to work...

- My visa is the worst: He never actually bother about it, I was telling him every week to do something about it and he just didn't do nothing. At the end there was a huge fine (AED6000) and I ended up paying it. Now I still need to pay another 2000 for I don't know what and leave the country and come back.

Now he fired me since he doesn't want the company to operate anymore (I was the managing director) and I had to leave the accomodation the very next day without nowhere to go.

I come from France, a country were employees are respected and protected by laws from abusive employers. I took the decision to leave UAE as soon as I can but first I wanted to find out a few things :

Can I take legal actions against him or I just need to publish a press release explaining everything about it ?

1- labor office and file a complan.
2- your embassy.
3- kill the boss....

firefingers wrote:1- labor office and file a complan.

I will try that but I've been doing some online search but didn't find anything...

firefingers wrote:2- your embassy.

It's not their job...

firefingers wrote:3- kill the boss....

Definetely not an option...

you could also go to immigration-- they might deny his visa requests in the future, regardless of what biz he is in-- dunno

sounds like you've been badly done by-- it is stories like this that will kill any enthusiasm skilled people might have for coming here and rightly so

Don't you have work agreement/contract?

I've seen dozens of a lot worse but I'm surprised they did it to a European?

xty wrote:Don't you have work agreement/contract?

Yes I did, I'm currently looking in the labour law, I will send him a request to give me back my money and threatening him to publish a press release.

complicated one.

okay, firstly you will have to go to an AD labour department as that is were you were "employed". the labour law in AD is NOT the same as that of Dubai. It may be worth making tentative advances through a third party before you barge into thier offices and they deport you for working illegally.

also, check with your previous employer if your labour card was cancelled/ transfered etc. normally one employer has to sign over - if none of the paperwork has been done (which from the sounds of your recent employer is probably the case), then technically you are still in the employ of your old employer. this may work out well for you, if you are on such good terms he may agree to allow you to find another job (and transfer off of his sponsorship).

unless things look like they are going to be in your favour with the labour department don't threaten him with anything, aside from the fact that a lot of "locals" have very long memories, they don't like to be put in a corner like this - you may suddenly find yourself being arrested for defrauding his now defunct company. all it would take is for him to visit a police station.

don't threaten unless you have really good dirt on him! ( ) and then make sure you have a copy of this somewhere safe! (i speak from experience!).

a press release won't work eaither as they simply won't publish it, or even if they did they would remove his name - so that doesn't really work. it also contravines the uae censor laws to publish anything that may tarnish or damage the image of the country - simply put, you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot!

you say that "your visa is the worst", what do you mean? what visa? residency or visit? this also makes a difference!!!

hi frenchy,

maybe you could of 'researched' the role before jumping in?

this isnt a constructive post and i apologise, but it strikes me as kinda obvious

If you want legal advice, ask a lawyer. You'll get forum advice from a forum. Dxbsoul sounds knowledgeable though. You could send a letter to the Gulf News legal advice column that runs once a week.

i do... i got put through the hoop a few times in Dubai myself, so went out of my way to find out. in my case i went to a lawyer, who wasn't able to help much at all - which only ended up costing me money.

i found the free legal advise at the labour department to be far more helpful - although as i said in my previous posting, make sure you have a legitimate greivance before going to them or you could end up in more trouble than you are in the first place... for example if you don't have a labour contract don't lay a complaint, you will only end up getting deported for working illegally!

the legal consultants there are arabic speaking so you should take a translator - it's not a quick process, but very effective.