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Hi,

I got retrenced last week only. My termination letter says that the company no longer require my services hence they are terminating it with immediate effect. As told by our HR, should I choose to stay, they will not cancel my visa and issue an NOC as soon as I find an employer(not a direct competitor). If I choose to leave, they will cancel my visa and issue repatriation ticket. They will pay me 1 month plus leave credits. I've been with the company for 11 months only. My colleague who got retrenched on Nov 30 for reason of under performance is still here in Dubai. She is waiting for her final pay and has requested or even begged the company several times to issue her her repatriation ticket and final pay so she can be with her family during the holidays. Her requests fell on deaf ears and till now there is no clear indication as to when she will receive her final pay and repatriation ticket. I guess, same thing would happen to me. All the other officers who got retrenced late October and early November still await for their severance pay.

- If the company issues me an NOC, does this mean labor won't ban me for 6 months and I can apply and transfer even on not free zone area?
- How long do we have to wait for the company to give us our severance pay? Like in our case (me, colleagues and some officers), our services were terminated with immediate effect, meaning upon serving the termination paper, we were asked to leave the company premises on the same day.

Please help and enlighten me.

Thanks!

bump

Hi,

I got retrenced last week only. My termination letter says that the company no longer require my services hence they are terminating it with immediate effect. As told by our HR, should I choose to stay, they will not cancel my visa and issue an NOC as soon as I find an employer(not a direct competitor). If I choose to leave, they will cancel my visa and issue repatriation ticket. They will pay me 1 month plus leave credits. I've been with the company for 11 months only.

My colleague who got retrenched on Nov 30 for reason of under performance is still here in Dubai. She is waiting for her final pay and has requested or even begged the company several times to issue her her repatriation ticket and final pay so she can be with her family during the holidays. Her requests fell on deaf ears and till now there is no clear indication as to when she will receive her final pay and repatriation ticket. I guess, same thing would happen to me. All the other officers who got retrenced late October and early November still await for their severance pay.

• How long have you been working with this company, you can only use a NOC to get your labour card transferred if you have been working with them for over one continuous year. In your situation ask the company if it is possible for you to continue to work for them for one more month in order to reach the 1 year minimum requirement. If you have not worked out a full year you will be banned.

• In addition if you are employed on a “fixed period” contract you will be banned irrespective of whether you have a NOC or not.

• Underperformance as a reason for retrenchment is not legal. In theory retrenchment is not recognised by UAE labour Law. Either the contract is in effect or it is not, if it is not it must be terminated for a particular reason (by either party) under Articles 120 or 121 of the Labour Law.

• Employees may refuse to sign their final cancellation papers if their full dues have not been paid to them, the law states that dues are first settled before the contract is concluded. Employees not receiving their benefits or pay on time can approach the Labour Department for assistance.

- If the company issues me an NOC, does this mean labor won't ban me for 6 months and I can apply and transfer even on not free zone area?

• See above, 1 year minimum and depending on the type of contract. Different FZ’s have different regulations.

- How long do we have to wait for the company to give us our severance pay? Like in our case (me, colleagues and some officers), our services were terminated with immediate effect, meaning upon serving the termination paper, we were asked to leave the company premises on the same day.

Please help and enlighten me.

Thanks!

Hello dbx!

Please see below in green:

• How long have you been working with this company, you can only use a NOC to get your labour card transferred if you have been working with them for over one continuous year. In your situation ask the company if it is possible for you to continue to work for them for one more month in order to reach the 1 year minimum requirement. If you have not worked out a full year you will be banned.

I've worked with the company for 11 months. They intentionally terminated my services short of 1 month so as not to pay gratuity. Upon serving my termination letter, HR clearly mentioned that I am not entitled to gratuity pay.

• In addition if you are employed on a “fixed period” contract you will be banned irrespective of whether you have a NOC or not.


[b]My contract with the company is unlimited.

According to our HR, company will issue me NOC addressed to my new employer?

• Underperformance as a reason for retrenchment is not legal. In theory retrenchment is not recognised by UAE labour Law. Either the contract is in effect or it is not, if it is not it must be terminated for a particular reason (by either party) under Articles 120 or 121 of the Labour Law.

• Employees may refuse to sign their final cancellation papers if their full dues have not been paid to them, the law states that dues are first settled before the contract is concluded. Employees not receiving their benefits or pay on time can approach the Labour Department for assistance.[/b]

To date, all the retrenched staffs and officers have not received their severance pay since their termination date...October and November. They have filed a complaint to Labour Dept. and I think they will drag the case to court. For the officers, I think this is OK, but for the poor underpaid employees like us, we don't have enough cash to drag the case to court.



Please help and enlighten me.

Thanks![/quote]

• How long have you been working with this company, you can only use a NOC to get your labour card transferred if you have been working with them for over one continuous year. In your situation ask the company if it is possible for you to continue to work for them for one more month in order to reach the 1 year minimum requirement. If you have not worked out a full year you will be banned.

I've worked with the company for 11 months. They intentionally terminated my services short of 1 month so as not to pay gratuity. Upon serving my termination letter, HR clearly mentioned that I am not entitled to gratuity pay.

I doubt it makes much difference with respect to the gratuity payment; you’d be entitled to such a small amount of money even if you had worked out the full year:

Example calculation:

Say you earned 3,000 AED per month: 3,000 x 12 = 36,000 per year
Gratuity is calculated at Twenty one day’s pay for each year of the first five years of service

Which is 3,000/30 * 21 = AED 2,100

The law then goes further and states that if you are on an unlimited contract and it is terminated between 1 and 3 years into its duration you are only liable for 1/3 of the above sum.

AED 2,100/ 3 = AED 700

Your total gratuity in this case would be 700 AED or almost 2% of what your annual salary is – not much of a bonus is it?

• In addition if you are employed on a “fixed period” contract you will be banned irrespective of whether you have a NOC or not.


My contract with the company is unlimited.

According to our HR, company will issue me NOC addressed to my new employer?

As you have not worked a full year with your employer the NOC is not worth anything, you cannot transfer as you have not worked the minimum period required by law and would be banned!

• Underperformance as a reason for retrenchment is not legal. In theory retrenchment is not recognised by UAE labour Law. Either the contract is in effect or it is not, if it is not it must be terminated for a particular reason (by either party) under Articles 120 or 121 of the Labour Law.

• Employees may refuse to sign their final cancellation papers if their full dues have not been paid to them, the law states that dues are first settled before the contract is concluded. Employees not receiving their benefits or pay on time can approach the Labour Department for assistance.[/b]

To date, all the retrenched staffs and officers have not received their severance pay since their termination date...October and November. They have filed a complaint to Labour Dept. and I think they will drag the case to court. For the officers, I think this is OK, but for the poor underpaid employees like us, we don't have enough cash to drag the case to court.

Has the company cancelled your labour cards yet?

Hi Again!

Has the company cancelled your labour cards yet?[/quote]

They haven't canceled my visa and labour card yet. Per HR, they will cancel only or transfer and issue me NOC should I find a new employer. They are giving me until March.

My salary was 7K (gross). As told, I am only entitled to 1 month pay based on basic plus leave credits....no gratuity pay.


Thank you....

The longer the better. The term of the contract will be calculated to the date that the labour card is transferred; if you can stretch it beyond the 1 year of employment mark and get the NOC sorted out then you have a good chance of avoiding the ban!

Do not let them cancel it, it can only be transfered ...

Cancell = BAN

Please...help again...

I have a probable employer in a freezone area. At first, they are hesitant to hire me cuz of visa problem....according to their PRO. However, they said they'll give it a try and are asking for my passport and NOC. My old employer has been screaming for my passport since I am still under their visa. They want me to return my passport to them. They said if I give my passport to my probable employer, they will cancel my visa and will not issue me NOC.

What shall I do?

CaptainCaveman wrote:As for alot of people my company are laying people off. However i'm being told different thigs as to what payment i am due. I have not been made redundant as my position still exists. When i was informed of the termination to my contract i was told they can get 3 people to do the job for what they pay me. Quite simply i'm being replaced by cheaper labour. In no emails regarding my termination has any remark been made to the quality of my work or stating any other reason for my termination. A friend has told me that this is a retrenchment and that i should be entitled to a package.

I am getting the 21 days gratutity but have been told this is based on my basic salary and does not include housing or transport allowence, is this correct? A friend who works is Finance seems to think it should be based on my last pay packet regardless of what it contains.

If its an issue over the salary and they need the position but cant afford you - why dont you negotiate for something lower and keep the job. There is a shortfall of jobs and very few companies are hiring in the market. A job, although with lower pay is better than sitting jobless at home.

Same thing happened to some of my friends in a real estate firm. On Jan 29, they were told they were fired and that was their last working day. They have come to know that they will get gratuity based on basic but as compensation for the sudden firing are getting 3 months pay.

You can take it to court. Without taking names, several years ago, an American consultant was sued by an employee for firing him without any reason. Well - they were not happy with his performance but there was nothing to back it in writing, no warning letters, emails, etc. So he had a point and was confident of winning the case. They finalyl settled it out of court in his favour.

adrianne wrote:Please...help again...

I have a probable employer in a freezone area. At first, they are hesitant to hire me cuz of visa problem....according to their PRO. However, they said they'll give it a try and are asking for my passport and NOC. My old employer has been screaming for my passport since I am still under their visa. They want me to return my passport to them. They said if I give my passport to my probable employer, they will cancel my visa and will not issue me NOC.

What shall I do?

Your old company cannot cancel / transfer your visa without your passport, so you will have to give it to them at some stage. Give copies to the potential employer, but they too will require it at some stage for issuing a new visa. The best thing you can do in this situation, is get the two PRO's to talk to one another and thrash it out that way.

Personally I've changed job, never had an NOC, always transfered the visa, never had a problem. Mind you I was a local hire as I've been here so long, so a company would have to be really vindictive to me to refuse to do it for me.

adrianne wrote:Please...help again...

I have a probable employer in a freezone area. At first, they are hesitant to hire me cuz of visa problem....according to their PRO. However, they said they'll give it a try and are asking for my passport and NOC. My old employer has been screaming for my passport since I am still under their visa. They want me to return my passport to them. They said if I give my passport to my probable employer, they will cancel my visa and will not issue me NOC.

What shall I do?

actually , in my case , I was able to get sponsorship after the cancellation of my visa without NOC ...that was actually the PRO sponsored me a visa from freezone area and that worked without NOC and really dunno how it worked!!!!!!

for your case.... it should work like mine....but if you were able to get NOC then its well and fine...get it and switch your job...

From the way it looks, your options are limited and will not get much better through not taking any action - if you have the opportunity of a job at this stage then take it!

1. Your current employer said that they would give you till March to find a new job. Speak to them, tell them you have a position, but require a NOC in order to process the application.
2. Let the new employer have your passport, from what I see applications through the FZ's take a day or two at most; you can then hand your passport over to your old current employer for cancellation/ transfer.
3. NOC's are sometimes required by some of the FZ's; each FZ has its own regulations regarding this. Ask the PRO from the new company to check the regulations first.