Zaid: Hello. Welcome. Welcome back to Lawgical with LYLAW. This is Zaid again. If you’ve listened to our previous episode, you know that Lawgical has shifted gears to a more question and answers-based format. In this upcoming segment, Ludmila is going to continue addressing some of the questions we’ve received from our listeners. If you’d like one of your questions to be answered on the show, feel free to reach out to us on our various social media pages. The names that we’ve used in these episodes have been changed in the interest of confidentiality. We hope you enjoy this segment and the ones to come.
Hanan: Alright Ludmila, we’ve received another question from Patrick. Patrick asks the following: I joined my ex-employer after resignation as they offered me a job on an unlimited contract. I performed well. My appraisals went well, and I also submitted a request for further education assistance as part of my package appreciation which was under consideration. My recent raise and educational sponsorship were due recently, when I was fired from my job. They have also not paid some of my dues. I had started my course during my job as I was expecting to be compensated around 60,000 dirhams. I requested them to consider me for another role as I have diversified qualifications, experience, and skills, but they did not consider it by saying that there is no new vacancy under consideration. But recently, I came across a job ad from them and I feel betrayed and foul played by them. I look forward to compensation for the damage to my career, unpaid dues, payment for my online education that I started while working there, and unemployment losses. Please advise if you can help me in seeking justice.
Ludmila Yamalova: Well, it’s a very lengthy question and obviously very multifaceted. Let me try to parse it out in a way that answers the questions but gives a little bit of structure because it is fairly complex and touches upon many angles.
The first part of the question relates to the compensation and employment benefits. It sounds like the employee was receiving salary and whatever other additional compensation and there were opportunities for additional benefits and additional compensation under certain circumstances or provided that certain performance reviews were successfully met. One of these additional benefits related to educational allowance and perhaps some other kind of promotional and salary raises. However, it appears that the employee had perhaps thought and maybe even had indication that he was performing well and therefore relied on the sentiment or whatever comments that might have come from his superiors in believing that this educational allowance will have been approved, but in fact it was not approved. It was under consideration but prior to a final decision on whether he was entitled to it or not, he went ahead and in fact incurred these expenses for this course, and now he is trying to see whether he can seek compensation for reimbursement since in his mind it sounds like he was misled and perhaps some sort of a contract was breached. That is the first part of the question.
The second part of the question relates to the company’s decision to terminate him and his request to be considered for other positions and the company’s ultimate decision not to offer him any other positions and therefore the employee’s questions related to what options he has, if any, either to be rehired or somehow to be compensated for what he believes he has suffered as a result of this termination. I’ll answer this question in these two general parts.
With regard to the first part of it, and that is the one related to additional compensation, we are talking about in particular terms related to compensation for this educational course which the employee went ahead and paid for to the tune of 60,000 dirhams. It’s not an unsubstantial amount. Now he is wishing to be reimbursed for it on the basis of whatever representations he believed he was relying on. Based on the formulation of the question, it does not sound like there is a legitimate claim for compensation here. Without having seen the company policy and the specifics of the correspondence and communications in this case, but based on just the question itself, or the phrasing of the question, it sounds like that the employee perhaps just acted a little bit too eagerly and relied on representations that perhaps were premature, that is the employee sounded like he had sort of made his own self-assessment of his performance and on the basis of that had assumed that he would be allowed to take this course and the course educational allowance will have been approved. Well, that in and of itself, is not sufficient because something like this, especially when we are talking about 60,000 dirhams, which is a substantial amount. We can imagine it’s perhaps a fairly significant part of a salary and if not the annual salary, at least perhaps a quarterly salary. Therefore, for something like this, this would be considered to be an amendment to a contract. As you can imagine, and especially in most relationships and certainly in employment relationships, there would have to be some kind of an agreement or some document that would memorialize this commitment because it is a substantial amount of money. In the absence of such an agreement or such document, it would be very difficult and perhaps unreasonable for the employee to expect that he should be compensated for this.
Now, if there were communications between the employee and the company where somebody of a decision-making authority did somehow give him sufficient statements or grounds to rely on, which may be considered as forming an agreement, there could be an argument there. But based on the phrasing of the question, it does not sound like that was the case because the listener, Patrick, clearly said that the request for compensation was still under consideration. Therefore, this is not really an actionable claim and this is not a claim that I would recommend Patrick takes to court because it’s not a winnable case.
Part of the parsing of the question, also Patrick mentioned something about unpaid dues, that he is now being terminated and he’s owed some unpaid dues which he has not been paid. That’s also a compensation part of the question, but it’s very different from the additional compensation for educational allowance that he was expecting because anything that is actually due and that has not been paid, such as a salary for example, or perhaps some bonuses or commissions that were due, then anything related to that obviously is an actionable claim and without having further details, presumably part of the salary was not paid or perhaps some other expenses which were approved are not being reimbursed or perhaps a commission or bonus, so if it’s something related to that part of the employment agreement, then absolutely that would be an actionable claim. In that case, if the amount were substantial, then Patrick certainly should consider filing a formal case unless he is able to amicably resolve this or negotiate with the employer. That is as far as compensation is concerned.
With regard to the second part of the question, that is one related to Patrick’s desire to stay with the company and the company’s ultimate decision not to offer him any other positions, and now Patrick’s corresponding feeling of disappointment and hurt perhaps for not being considered for the position, so now as a result he wants to seek some kind of justice. Well, as a general comment, that is a very emotional response. Absolutely, we’re humans and we’re all emotional beings and emotions are a necessary part of what we feel and how we think. That being said, if this case progresses into a formal court action, emotions will not have a part in it. It’s very important to isolate emotions from the legal merits of the case because you cannot stand in front of a judge and argue that you were disappointed because they did not treat you well or that you expected something and they did not treat you the way that you wanted to be treated. That’s an emotional response and I highly recommend that some time passes, and Patrick cools down and whatever decisions he proceeds with forward are based purely on the merits of the case and the legal argument and not emotions. That’s a general comment.
The other important comment is that in the U.A.E. with regards to employment rights and employment relationships, the U.A.E. is very similar with regards to the security of employment contracts to the U.S. and that is that employment is at will. When you have a concept such as that, employment at will, that means that either party can terminate the contract, the employment relationship at any point in time for any reason. There are no limitations. There is no way for the courts or any other authorities to force one or the other party to continue the relationship against their will. That, generally speaking, is a concept that’s referred to as employment at will. The U.A.E. is an employment at will jurisdiction. Therefore, the company in this particular case has full legal rights to terminate the relationship without any reason and perhaps without any notice and not consider Patrick for any other alternative positions. That, in and of itself, is not an actionable claim.
However, when a contract is terminated early, such as presumably in Patrick’s case, then it becomes a matter of compensation. Once again, the company can terminate Patrick even if it’s early and even if he performed very well and even if he did really well. Then even if he had earned a bonus and they had promised him a long-term contract or further opportunities, they still can terminate. It just becomes a matter of compensation. A matter of compensation is multifaceted in the U.A.E. In general terms, the most amount of compensation an employee can consider when the employment relationship is being terminated prematurely, is as follows: (1) There is obviously the notice period. The minimum notice period is one month unless the contract provides for a longer notice period. If the company is keeping Patrick on to work through his notice period, then that’s all he’s entitled to. If they want to terminate him immediately, they have to compensate him for the value of the notice. That’s one component of the compensation. (2) The other one obviously is unpaid salary, unpaid bonuses or commissions that he would have earned but have not been paid yet. (3) Vacation is another part. (4) Then there is what’s called the arbitrary dismissal. The arbitrary dismissal is a concept that refers to compensation for the premature termination of a contract or the unfair termination of a contract. The maximum allowed compensation in that case is three months of full salary. In a limited contract it’s the full three months, but it’s more or less nonnegotiable and it’s more or less black and white. In an unlimited contract, the law states that compensation is up to three months and that’s arbitrary dismissal, up to three months depending on the longevity or the length of the term of the employment. If it’s a lengthy relationship, courts often grant the full three months, but the law clearly says it’s up to three months. It can be anything between two weeks to a month and a half to three months of compensation, but all in all the maximum amount of compensation in say an unfair termination is that of three months of arbitrary dismissal, one month of notice, unless notice is longer in the contract, and then unpaid salary, unpaid vacation, repatriation expenses if they are provided for in the contract, and the ticket home. Therefore, as long as the company in this particular case offers Patrick more or less compensation within that range, then there’s nothing more that he can claim. He’s asking whether he can seek justice and what else, if he can seek compensation for some sort of unemployment losses. There are no unemployment benefits in the U.A.E. beyond what I just described unless there is reputational damage. Patrick’s letter referred to reputational damage, but unless there is evidence somehow that the company acted to the detriment of Patrick’s reputation and there are some visible losses related to that, then there is no claim here and based on the phrasing of this question, it doesn’t sound like there are any actionable claims related to some kind of damage to his employment reputation.
Justice wise, this is it. The justice is that there are certain benefits that you are entitled to, and that’s just basically just arbitrary dismissal and your notice period and obviously whatever else you’ve earned so far. That is the maximum that you are allowed to by law, therefore this is all you can ask unless obviously there are some other damages you have suffered, and you can prove them accordingly. But otherwise this is it.
I will tell you, the U.A.E. treatment of employees and employment rights and employment compensation is a lot more generous than for example what we have in the U.S. If we are talking about justice, it’s all relative, but compared to other jurisdictions it actually is quite generous. So no, there is nothing else that Patrick can do or should consider doing because it would be highly expensive and lengthy and emotionally challenging and ultimately there is no positive outcome will come out of it.
Zaid: Hello again. This marks the end of this latest episode of Lawgical with LYLAW. Thank you for tuning in. We hope you like the new format. If you have any feedback or suggestions on how you would like the show to progress or if you have any questions that you would like us to address, please let us know via any of our social media platforms. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes. We have some exciting things planned, and we really hope that you enjoy the show as much as much as we enjoy making it. See you soon.
