Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Working in Dubai

I am the wife of someone who has just been given notice of termination of employment.

My husband works for a large international company and has been told they need to cut costs in Dubai.

It is a FTSE 100 company, in the UK he would have been entitled to redundancy, (worked for the company 15 years, 11 in the UK and 4 here) but because they made him resign from the UK company and be on a local contract here he is not entitled to any. (unless anyone knows different-I have heard of a few cases being taken to court in the UK) This stinks, all his direct line bosses work from the UK for the UK company and if they get made redundant they will get the full UK redundancy package.

What is considered Redundancy - his job will still have to be done, it will probably be divided among his collegues. The company may need to cut costs in Dubai but Annual pre-tax profits for the company were up 42% to £2.4bn, so they are not broke!

He got told over the phone by his line manager in the UK on Tuesday 24th July, so far he has recieved no written notice or had any contact from HR! (which is in South Africa)

Is he entitled to compensation for arbitrary dismissal under UAE labour law

I have gone from being shocked to being very angry, while he is looking for another job, I am making sure that he knows what he is entitled to.

They will pay 3 months notice as in his contract, plus gratuity and accrued holiday.

I just would like peoples thoughts on his right to compensation for being made redundant.

Thanks

They have to pay whatever is in his contract for redundency. Your best bet is to contact the Ministry of Labour and ask what exactly he is entitled to under UAE labour law.

Unfortunatly there is nothing in his contract reguarding redundency.

Hello PIBHB,

I am very sorry to hear of your bad news

As your husband resigned from his job in the UK then unfortunately the UK side of things is no longer relevant.

With regards to his UAE contract, until he is informed in writing by his UAE Employer (not his UK Line Manager as his employment contract is not with the UK) the notice period will only commence from the date of this letter.

As there are not really redundancy laws in Dubai it could be likely that it could be classed as arbitrary dismissal which if proven in the Labour Courts will be between 1-3 months pay in compensation.

To prove the case will take anything from 6-12 months if not longer with monthly or more frequent visits to the Courts and you may not even win your case!

It would probably be more stressful than it is worth especially if after 12 months or so you only get granted one months compensation or even worse nothing.

I would just try and put it behind you, think ahead and move onwards and upwards

Good luck!

Thanks for your answers, still waiting for the letter - will see what it says.

Will probably ask for compensation, the company is not closing down and his job still needs to be done, they will probably divide it amoung his collegues.

We want to stay in Dubai so will focus attention on finding a new possition.

I wish anonymous people who made these decissions realised the impact on peoples lives, but I know to them my husband is just a number!

Thanks for your help, much appreciated

PIBHB, good luck with everything and I hope your husband finds a new job soon. I have experience with a company that has been reducing its workforce around the world and it has a fairly consistent severance policy in every country which is quite generous. Not all companies function this way though, and some will jump at the chance to make use of local policies if it saves them money.

I thought labour law was 3 weeks wages for every year worked for the first five years and four weeks for all other years up to a maximum of 2 years pay.

drewpeacock , Yes but remember many companies fiddle the basic salary, making it as low as possible and the rest of the salary being made up of allwances. This means they pay as little as possible in gratuity.

Chocoholic wrote:drewpeacock , Yes but remember many companies fiddle the basic salary, making it as low as possible and the rest of the salary being made up of allwances. This means they pay as little as possible in gratuity.

Chocs, a new ruling a few months back and a test case included add ons as forming entitlement

Hi drewpeacock

Thanks for the info, do you know where I can find any details of this test case.

PIBHB wrote:Hi drewpeacock

Thanks for the info, do you know where I can find any details of this test case.

This sets out the gratuity requirement in this link.

Look up,UAE gratuity law on the Internet where you will find loads of info.

http://www.dubaifaqs.com/gratuity-calculation-dubai.php

Thanks Drewpeacock

I have managed to get lots of information from the internet, and some of it conflicting on entitlement to compensation for arbitrary dismissal.

There is also some discussion regarding if performance related pay, commisions and on target bonuses form part of your wages for gratuity payments.

Do you remeber where you read about this test case so I can find the details



Thanks for everybodies help

It really doesn't matter what the 'law' says, the 'law' says passports are not allowed to be held, yet how many companies do that? Depends who owns the company. Some are a 'law' unto themselves.

Chocoholic ,please I want guidelines for my situation also,I was being redundant here in abu dhabI in my work.jan 21 2016 we recieve a message from our concept manager that our store willgoing to close this last day of jan 2016, and after few days we recieve a redundant letter from hr say that our job are all terminated from jan 21 2016 to feb 20 2016 my point is how dare the company terminate our service without informing us 1month before.now I dont job we we didnt even being offered a new job like what we asking for any vacancy.I want to know exactly what is the total computation of my settlement being redundant.