Ask the law: Employer refuses to give my end-of-service benefits

Question:

A questioner asks: I have been working in a private company for 5 years of which 4 years I was working in the company’s branch in Saudi Arabia. Two months ago, I returned to the company’s branch in the Emirates. And it was agreed in the employment contract that I signed with the company in the Emirates that the end-of-service will be paid to me by the company in the Emirates.

Recently, I submitted my resignation, and the employer refuses to give me my rights for the end of service and asks me to take them from the company’s branch in Saudi Arabia. Do I legally have the right to file a lawsuit against my employer in the UAE, and how is the end of service calculated according to my years of service? Please advise.

Answer.

To answer this question, I would advise the questioner that:

You have the right to file a lawsuit against the employer in the UAE because it was agreed in the employment contract that the employer will be responsible to pay the end of service dues and as per Article 63 of the Civil Transaction Law “A person is bound by his acknowledgment”.

The court will check the employment contract and its terms to give its decision.

If it is clear that your service is continuous from the date you have started work in Saudi Arabia, then your end of service shall be calculated from that date until the last working day in UAE as per Article 51 of the Federal Law No. 33 of 2021 which states that “The full-time foreign worker, who completed a year or more in continuous service, shall be entitled to end of service benefits at the end of his service, calculated according to the basic wage as per the following:

a). A wage of (21) twenty one days for each year of the first five years of service;

b). A wage of (30) thirty days for each year exceeding such period.

The foreign worker shall be entitled to a benefit for parts of the year in proportion to the period spent at work, provided that he completed one year of continuous service.

The end of service benefits shall be calculated according to the last basic wage the worker was entitled to and it is required based on the foregoing that the end of service benefits for the foreign worker in its entirety does not exceed two years’ wage.