Question
I have been working in a private company for two years and I have a certified contract with the Ministry of Labour. Last year, my employer asked me to work for one of his subsidiaries under a new employer. Currently, I have been dismissed from my service. Who is responsible for paying my late wages and labour dues. Both the companies are not willing to pay.
Answer: If the worker actually moves - at the request of the employer - to work part-time or to perform a specific work in a place other than the contracting place, the burden of proving that is on the worker.
It would be easy to prove this if your contract is still the same and you are still receiving your salary from the first employer. This employer should be responsible for your liabilities because you will be in this matter like a person working on other site for the same employer and under the same contractual conditions. Your wages, including gratuity, will be calculated from the date you have started work with him and the burden of proving the contrary will be on the employer.
The decision stipulated in the jurisdiction of Dubai Court is that “whenever the contract of employment is still between the employer and the worker and the relationship has not been proven to end in any way, it would obligate the employer to pay the agreed salary for the worker, and he will not be discharged from this, except by written evidence or by acknowledgment or oath in fulfillment of the text of Article (58) of the Labour Law. If the employer claims that the worker is not entitled to his salary for any reason, then the burden of proving that rests on him, and he may prove that by all legal evidence methods.”
If the first contract had been terminated and a new contract had been issued with the new employer and you were receiving your salary from this employer, he should be responsible for your wages because the first contractual relationship ended at the time of termination. Your wages, including gratuity, will be calculated from the date you have started the work with him.
But if you didn’t receive your dues from the first employer at the time of termination of the first contract, then you have to be aware that one year has not passed from the date of accrual, or else you will lose the right to make a claim against the first employer as per Article (6) of the UAE Labour Law.
“In all cases, no claim for any of the rights provided for in this law shall be heard if brought to the court after the lapse of one year from the date of accrual, nor shall any claim be admitted if the procedures stated in this article are not complied with.”
Nevertheless, you might have a chance to take your dues from the first employer if you can prove that the first and second employers are one entity, which means that the employment relationship is continuous, so you can claim your dues from both employers and since the date you had started duty with the first employer. In this regard, the court will estimate your evidence as per the documents and circumstances of the claim.
This is stipulated in Dubai Court, according to the first article of the UAE Labour Law. It says “the service of the worker with the employer himself or his legal successor is considered a continuous service period and the trial court has full authority in assessing whether the term of service of the worker with the employer is an intermittent or continuous period, and arranging the effects thereof and established its jurisdiction on what had found in the papers.”
