I have worked in a company in Dubai for a year. My services have been terminated and I want to take up employment with a new company. Will my end-of-service gratuity be calculated on the basis of 21 or 30 days? I was working on a two-year limited labour contract. Will my gratuity be calculated on the basis of two years of service, or one year only, as my employer terminated me without valid reason? Do I have the right to receive an air ticket home?
Article 132 of the UAE Labour Law states: “A worker who has completed a period of one or more years of continuous service shall be entitled to severance pay on the termination of his employment. The days of absence from work without pay shall not be included in calculating the period of service. The severance pay shall be calculated as follows: 21 days’ remuneration for each year of the first five years of service, and 30 days’ remuneration for each additional year of service provided that the aggregate amount of severance pay shall not exceed two years’ remuneration.”
Therefore, the questioner is entitled to receive three months’ salary as a compensation from his employer because it was the latter who broke the limited contract.
As per the Dubai Supreme Court, the questioner is entitled to an air ticket only if he going back home and not going to join a new employer.
Labour ban
I have worked in a company for more than two years. The company is not a freezone company. I went on vacation for a month, but did not return to Dubai because someone told me that my company had filed a police case against me. This was in February this year. My contract expired in August, but I haven’t sent my resignation. My company terminated my services in August. Is it possible for the company to cancel my visa without having my original passport? Can I return to the UAE? What type of ban can my employer seek against me?
The questioner has violated provisions of the UAE Labour Law and his residence visa will have automatically been cancelled. Accordingly, the questioner’s sponsor can submit an application to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, with the cancellation of residence attached, and ask the ministry to cancel the labour card as well as impose a ban, which in this case might be for a year.
Therefore, the questioner might not be able to enter UAE for a year. The questioner needs to check with the UAE authorities on what type of ban has been imposed on him since the company had filed a police case.
Questions answered by advocate Mohammad Ebrahim Al Shaiba of Al Shaiba Advocates and Legal Consultants.
