Sacked worker gets compensation

The Dubai Court of Appeal has awarded Dh8,117 to an Asian worker for illegal layoff and has ordered the firm where he worked to pay up.

The worker had filed a suit against the company claiming that it had not paid his Dh1,100 salary for 10 months, and had stopped him from taking his annual leave.

The worker left the company and filed a lawsuit demanding Dh20,350 as compensation, which included interest and his ticket home.

The Appeal Court changed the lower court's ruling and ordered the company to compensate the worker.

The Dubai Court of First Instance had issued an earlier ruling in February ordering the company to pay Dh3,300 and award the worker for the period between September 1999 and June 2001.

This was in addition to his ticket home, his annual leave encashment, plus nine per cent interest.
The lower court also ordered the company to cover the lawyer's fees and court expenses totalling Dh1,000.

According to court reports, the employee had joined the building insulation company on a five-year contract on a Dh1,100 basic salary.

The worker said the company not only did not pay his salary for 10 consecutive months and forbid him from taking his annual leave, but later fired him without any first warning. It also did not give him either his ticket home or his financial entitlements. So he left the company.

The company lawyer claimed the worker had signed a three-year contract on a Dh800 basic salary. He showed the court the signed contract. The lawyer claimed the man also suddenly terminated his contract, so, according to the regulations, he was not eligible for any entitlements or end-of-service benefits.

He said the lower court had considered the fact that the worker did not terminate his contract but that the company ended his services.

The company later appealed to the higher court. It requested the appeal court to cancel the ruling and promised to support their claim with the salary cheque book that would prove that the worker got all his salaries paid in full up to March, 2001.

But the higher court decided that since the man left the company on June 15, 2001, he was entitled to two-and-a-half months salary, plus Dh850 as compensation, in addition to an extra month's salary as bonus.

The court also ruled that the worker was further entitled to another Dh1,100 as an annual leave encashment, in addition to Dh1,317 end of service benefit, plus Dh1,000 for his ticket home.