UAE: Can my company force me to socialise at work?

Dubai: Have you ever been asked to stay back at work for additional assignments, but were not sure if the work would be eligible for an overtime pay? A Gulf News reader wrote in with a query on what constitutes as work, as per the UAE Labour Law.

He asked: “I work in a company in the UAE with work timings from 8am to 6pm, with an hour’s break, six days a week. The total hours worked by us are nine hours daily, amounting to 54 hours weekly, which is above the limit as per the UAE Labour Law, with no additional overtime paid to us.

“Our company recently put out a memo informing that they have changed the work timings from 8am to 5pm with an hour’s break, and an additional hour for socialising, making the total hours spent at our work desk nine hours even now. For this additional hour, we are supposed to be in our department but it is categorised as compulsory socialising and we are only able to leave work at 6pm, with no overtime.

“I want to know if I can take legal action against my company for forcing us to spend additional time at work by finding a loophole and tagging it as a mandatory daily socialising hour.”

Gulf News raised the query with Mohamed Elmasry, an associate at Al Suwaidi and Company, Advocates and Legal Consultants who said that Article 65 of the UAE Labour Law stipulates the maximum number of working hours for adult workers, which is eight hours per day, or forty eight hours per week. For overtime calculation, Article 67 of the UAE Labour Law lays down the criteria and amount of pay.

Clarifying what would be categorised as overtime, Elmasry said: “What is meant by overtime, for which the employee is entitled to an increase of 25 per cent of his wage, is the working hours that exceed 48 hours per week, so that if the employee works for nine hours per day and 45 hours per week for five days per week, with two days off, then it cannot be said that he worked a number of hours exceeding the legally prescribed hours, because the provisions of the law are interrelated and they must be aligned together in the interest of the employee and the employer, so that an employee who works 45 hours a week may not claim this allowance simply for working nine hours a day for five days every week. This is a matter of public order for both parties of the employment contract.

“However, the employee is entitled to the additional wage of 25 per cent for the hours of work that exceed the hours specified by law, provided that the employer is the one who assigned the employee to it, and the burden of proof falls on the employee to prove that the employer assigned the work to the employee.”

Responding specifically to the reader’s query, Elmasry said: “If the employee has the proof that the employer assigned additional work to the employee during the extra socialising hour, and the number of working hours exceeded 48 hours per week, then the employer is entitled to payment of wage equivalent to the ordinary hourly wage with an addition of at least 25 per cent of the said wage as per Article 67 of the UAE Labour Law concerning the regulation of labour relations.

“Yet, with consideration to Article 65 of the UAE Labour Law, if it is not optional for the employee to leave during the socialising hour, then it shall be considered an additional working hour, and it will be accordingly subject to overtime payment,” he added.

"If the employee acquires the requisite written proof which shows and clarifies that the employer has assigned work to the employee after the prescribed working hours, as stated in Article 65 of UAE Labour Law, then the employee has the right to approach MOHRE in order to file a labour complaint through which the latter shall request MOHRE to oblige the employer to pay the overtime wage. Moreover, if the employer did not pay heed to the Ministry's instructions , then the complaint will be transferred to court.

"Also, if the employer later decides to terminate the employee as retaliation to the latter’s overtime wage compliant, then the termination will be considered 'arbitrary' and it will be subject to a compensation of one to three months' salary as per Article 123 of the Labour Law."