Uninsured mum in UAE denied compensation, maternity benefits by company
Provisions of Article 30 of the Labour Law explained
Question: I have been working with a private company for two years. A month ago, I took maternity leave, and accordingly, I went to a hospital and gave birth to my child.
I paid the hospital bill from my own account, because the employer did not provide me with health insurance. I contacted the employer to pay the value of the bill, but the employer refused, saying he is not obliged to pay for it.
Also, I have two employment contracts, one internal and one certified by the Ministry of Labour. The internal contract mentions a basic salary greater than the basic salary mentioned in the contract approved by the Ministry of Labour.
Do I have the legal right to adhere to this internal contract because the terms of this contract are in my interest? Is maternity leave with full pay?
Answer: Regarding your maternity leave, and according to Article 30 of the Labour Law, the female worker shall be entitled to maternity leave of 60 sixty days, abiding by the following conditions:
a. The first 45 days with full pay.
b. The following 15 days with half pay.
The female worker, may, after using her maternity leave, be absent from work without pay for a period not exceeding 45 consecutive or intermittent days, if such absence is due to an illness suffered by her or her child as a result of pregnancy or childbirth and that does not enable her to return to her work.
Obtaining the maternity leave or the absence referred to in this article shall not prejudice her right to obtain other leaves.
As for the basic salary, it is established in the Labour Court of Cassation No. 73/2017 that in the event of multiple agreements between the two parties regarding one subject, the subsequent agreement supersedes the previous one under certain circumstances.
This includes the event of a conflict and the contrary conditions it stipulated, considering that the re-organisation of the relationship between them again under the subsequent contract indicates that they had intended to exclude any conditions that were stipulated in the previous contract in violation.
This means that the court will take the new basic salary into consideration unless the employer is still paying the basic salary as per the previous internal contract.