Digital Signature Legitimacy for Pregnancy Leave Policy in UAE

How to eSign a document: digital signature legitimacy for Pregnancy Leave Policy in UAE

so hi everybody thank you very much for joining us today i'm sure that more people will joining us but we can start my name is amaya delgado i'm the secretary general of the spanish business council and i want to welcome you to this webinar about the labor law of the united arab emirates we have here today with us two amazing experts alejandro es moris senior associate at bonnard lawson and ahmed bach a legal advisor general law and nagarang partners both legal friends bernard lawson and nagaran partners are members of the spanish business council and i'm very thankful because they decided to join us the spanish business houses being two international law firms this is one of the amazing things here in the uae in dubai that it's a international community and although most of the members of the sbc are spanish not all of them are and together we are creating an amazing city an amazing environment to work and to have business here in the uae so i just don't want to steal more time to our experts because they are the ones that are providing this amazing knowledge so we start with alejandra alejandra please go ahead and thank you very much thank you amaya for uh for this introduction and thank you to the spanish business council for hosting this webinar uh welcome to everyone to this session on the new labour labor law my name is alejandra maurice i'm a senior associate at bernard lewis an international law firm in their private client practice i regularly advise clients on employment matters today it will be the occasion to to review some important changes that have been uh introduced with the new regulation and try to share also some some experiences i will be joined by uh ahmed gabr from the law firm el nagar and partners for this session so without further ado the agenda for the the session of today will be the following i will start with a brief uh overview of uh the new regulations and some key changes that have been introduced um we will continue uh by reviewing uh the new work models that have been introduced through the new regulation um we will continue with the question related to the duration of contract you will see that some very important changes have been introduced in um in this regard um then we will continue with the question uh questions related to probationary periods and leaves um and finally we will review also termination of employment contracts and obviously the question of the end of services that i'm sure most of you might be very very interested if we have still a bit of time we we will uh have a q a uh session at uh at the end and we will try to answer your your questions as much as we can if we can we will try to get back to you later on so please uh do not hesitate to write your your questions in in the chat box um and and we will try to do our best to take them at the end without further ado let's start with the the the introduction uh part of this session so what you need to understand is that uh very recently a new federal law the federal law number uh 33 2021 has been enacted replacing the previous labor law and this new regulation has came into force on the 2nd of february 2022 and has been completed by the cabinet decision which we will call the executive regulation these executive regulations have been also released in february 2022 providing a totally new legal framework for a uae labor law and this new legal frame framework applies across across the the ue including free zone jurisdictions except for the afc and adgm because those two financial free zones have their own set of labor regulations so uh with the introduction of this new labour law one of the aim of the the lawmakers was to ensure that uh the the uae labor regulation is aligned with the best international practice in this matter and among the objectives that have been uh written in the law we have the fact that the the new law should provide more flexibility and sustainability for the ue labor market it needs also to provide more protection work-life balance also for employees and provide some support and rehabilitation while attracting talented and skilled employees here in the in the uae market so what are the key changes that have been uh introduced among them what we can say is that uh for example for the first time uh we have uh the the the principle of equality and non-discrimination that has been for example written down in this new regulation and especially for uh female workers it's uh specifying that female and male workers should receive the same type of wages at equal work another key change is the fact that it's clearly mentioned that forced labor sexual harassment or bullying is forbidden providing more security for employees here in them in the region another key change is the fact that new working models have been introduced uh with a new set also of work permits we have seen also that this new regulation has introduced a new leave regime and ahmed will provide you more detailed information in this regard and we have seen also that the maternity leave has been enhanced through this um this uh new um this new regulation which is very welcome for uh any female worker who are currently working in the uae and to make sure that they might eventually have a bit more security in in this regard one of the changes that have been implemented that maybe might be a bit more surprising is the fact that under the new uh under the the the new regulation unlimited employment contracts are not anymore allowed meaning that uh if there is any unlimited employment contract that was um entered into by an employer and employee under the old regulation this contract will need to be uh changed through a limited contract while this might be a bit surprising especially for employees who have been under an unlimited employment contract for very long time the fact that there is a transition to um to to this new kind of model of uh duration of contract doesn't imply that the rights in terms of gratitude might not be calculated from the first contract okay but it's important to understand that employers will have one year to amend the the the duration of employment contracts in case they have this kind of unlimited agreements in place we'll now continue with the new work models so under the old regulation there was usually only one working model which was the full-time employee with the new regulation we have the introduction in fact of four new uh work portraits the first one is obviously the full-time work partner which is the the standard and the one that we are used to then we have the part time we have also the temporary and the flexible regarding the the the part-time option this means that an employee can work for one or more employers for a specified number of working hours or for example for a specific number of working days during during the week regarding the temporary pattern we have the option in fact for an employee to work for a specified duration of time or for specific tasks and this type of contract will end with the completion of the duration or the task the last word partner pattern is the flexibility one which involves a variable working hours or days per week and this kind of model has the advantage to be very flexible to adapt ing to the workflow or the economic or operational needs of a company on top of that in fact the executive regulation have added two additional work patterns which are the remote work and the job sharing by remote work we are referring to uh the fact that the work is uh completely or partially performed outside the workplace and that in fact the employee is not um working in person at uh for example the facilities of the employer but he will uh work outside and eventually the the the the he will communicate with uh the employer to electronically means mainly the work in that case might be part-time or full-time this will depend on on the situation but what is important is just to make sure that in fact the worker is not obliged in order to perform the work inside the the office of the employer but can work remotely another working model is the job sharing meaning that tasks and duties might be divided between uh more than one worker and those workers when um working as together based on a job sharing model will be subject to in fact the provisions of the part-time work in the in the regulation in parallel the regulations the executive regulations have introduced new work permits categories under the old regulation all expatriate employees needed to obtain an employment permit before they legally could be legally employed in the uae and normally there was only one form and in that case normally the employee was hired on a full-time employment permit with the new law we have the introduction of 12 categories of work permits and among the most interesting new times we can mention for example the temporary work permit the one mission work permit the time the part-time work permits the juvenile pyramid or the freelance permit so this work permits will allow in fact to uh to to employers to implement in fact the new work models that have been presented before and facilitate in fact uh the the the to understand what are the obligations and rights of all the parties implicated in this relationship because the different type of working models have been implemented in the regulation and the the rights and obligation of the parties have been clarified in those regulations i just wanted to mention that in addition to this to the the two regulations that have been mentioned earlier the ministry of labor has also released the administrative resolution number 2020 the resolution number 22 of 2022 provided providing further guidance on the different categories of work permits uh regarding typically the requirements the duration of the work permits and the fees this resolution is accessible in the website of the ministry so please do not hesitate to visit their website because you might find a lot of additional information that can be very useful now that we have presented uh briefly the new work models what does it change in practice so here i will just take two uh simple scenarios uh to try to explain why this new work models might be really something that could be leveraged not only by employers but also by um by the employees first scenario let's say you have an employee who is willing to work part-time because uh he or she has uh family obligations as and as an employer you consider that this is a suitable arrangement for all of you for the employer for the employee and for the company under the old regulation the employer needed to hire this employee as a full-time worker of course the employer and the employee could have some sort of side agreements uh and to allow the employee to work on a part-time basis however um the rights and obligation of each party especially regarding gratuities leaves uh were not necessarily clear because this was not reflected in in the regulation and obviously this could lead to some dispute in case of termination of the contract of the employee and then the employee claiming leaves or graffities based on a full time contract the new law uh allows to remedy this uh kind of uncertainty by introducing the part-time working model so not only the employer can hire an employee on a part-time contract but the law contains specific dispositions in relation with the calculation of the gratuities and the leave for those employees that are under a part-time contract from my perspective this obviously provides more flexibility and security for both sides and i think that this change is really welcome the second scenario um it's for example let's say you have um as an employer and you have an increase of work because you have a new project or you have a new mandate or eventually one of your full-time employees uh he's on a along to a long sick leave or eventually you have one of your employees who is in maternity leave under the old regulation uh again the employer needed either to hire a full-time employee and eventually terminate uh this uh this employee to absorb i mean it was necessary to hire the full-time employee to absorb the additional work to be uh to be done and eventually terminate the contract of this resource was the when the the resource was no longer needed another alternative would have been also to hire someone through an agency or a manpower company for a certain period of time but then you have always the question of determination of the contract and then again the calculation of the leaves the gratitudes etc etc under the new uh under the new law this kind of situation might be solved in a different uh situation because it's possible for employers now to hire a new resource on a temporary temporary basis or for example a one mission work permit and with this flexibility again you might hire the resources that that needs the company to cover a specific project or to cover a specific period of time to make sure that the in fact the company will be able to assume the additional workload for a specific time without the necessity to hire a full-time employee that could lead not only to uh to at some point eventually you have less work and then you will have the question of what do i do with this resource that has been hired full-time because with a temporary um basis pyramid or a one one work permit you know that once the duration or the mission is completed the contract will end automatically of course if you consider that this person should be higher later on as a full-time employee you have always this possibility in conclusion uh from my perspective the introduction of this new this new working models the sorry the the introduction of these new working models and new categories of work pyramids are allowed to give more flexibility to both employers and employees to adapt to their respective needs and priorities and also for employees to eventually take into consideration some work-life balance i will now hand over to ahmed who will continue this presentation ahmed the floor is yours thank you very much indeed alejandra just having uh facing a better problem and connection but i will be here in just one second thank you very much alexander that was really uh awesome information you you're you're hearing me well right yes yeah that's that's very good uh thank you uh to all of our part students uh for joining our webinars and uh i would like to continue from where alejandra stopped because actually we have a lot of information today just in in in the upcoming 30 minutes so we would we would head directly to the slides and i would like first to start with the duration of the contract so here we are assuming that the contract has been conducted between the employer and the employee and ing to the new duration and the new nature of the contract uh we will find that that we have only a maximum duration of three years and one nature only which is the limited contract there's no more unlimited contract which is a given fact and uh the contract could be a limited of one year two years or three years and by by navigating the article eight of the law we can see that the employer must conclude an employment contract with the worker the employer ing to the form of work agreed open provided that the contract in a two copies this this was given fact in the previous law as well on which shall be kept by the employer and the other shall be handed to the worker this is a very important thing that you should handle to your worker employee the employer the the the the copy of the of the labor law of the labor contract i'm sorry in ance with the forms specified in the executive regulations which is uh my colleague alexandra have referred to in her speech and the the second clause is so always representative excuse me is represent very general word but it has a very good meaning representative should be authorized by the worker the worker is the employer either the company or the authorized person who represents the company before the authorities to avoid any problems to avoid any ledge with the authority to avoid any uh delay in the procedure itself of the of the contract the one who represents the company should be authorized to represent the company the representative might be the pro might be the hr might be as appointed but the appointment should be done ing to his visa title ing to uh to his information which which is which is submitted to the uh to the ministry of labor so uh the worker or his representative may establish the employment contract the amount of wage and the rights entitled under the provisions of this decree this was also a given fact in the in the old law and i'm i'm trying to define the new law and all the law i'm not doing a compare i'm just defining because the the differences are not are not too much however it is a a very specific and and and and very very important to be highlighted so we can continue with the closed mystery of article 8 that the employment contract shall be concluded for a specific period which not exceeding three years that means that you have the right to to to conclude this contract for the the period of one year two years or even three years and it is a permissible by mutual agreement between parties to extend extend or renew this contract the meaning of by mutual agreement between the parties the disagreement could be a written agreement and could be a vocal agreement like not not a written one however it is not mandatory later on to to let's say that the employer has promised the employee that they will have another uh contract or they will extend this contract for another three years if the employee insists to have a written agreement in this regard then this written agreement is is pending for both parties and uh there there are no much cases for that but it's all falls under the civil compensation in case if the employer preached this agreement or did not honor the agreement uh at the end of the contract uh and in the event of an extension renewal of the contract the new period shall be deemed to be an extension of the original period means that the gratuity the full and final settlement or the uh the the the entitlements that the financial rights of the employee shall continue to the to the next period so if it's three years then we renew it for two more years we're talking about the five years of contract five years of a a labor relationship between the employer and the employee and if both parties continue to implement the contract after the expiry of its original term or the expiry of the agreed urban work without express agreement in this case that we don't have an agreement our contract is done it's finished expired however we're continuing the obligations i'm continuing to come to work and the uh the employer continues to pay me and in this case for sure the the the extended contract will be based on the same conditions stated there in in the previous contract and the the executive regulation of the degrees of the decree is very important to be reviewed by the participants if the participants wishes to extend the understanding to the terms of this law to the articles of this law and the executive regulation could be easily found on on or nexus or in in english and and maybe uh in spanish as well i i don't know and let's go for the next such chapter which is the probation periods of course the probation period is one of the most important changes that have been brought to this law because the probation period in the previous law was just uh giving the right to the employer to test the employees that he is hiring the the probation bureau was also one three or six months and during the probation period we can say that the the the the labor relationship between the employer and the employee is not solid enough to to uh to base any obligation between both of them the employee can serve the notice and the employer can serve the termination at any time none of them will be punished or none of them will be the lawsuits who will not be that high however in the new law as we can see that the employer may appoint the worker under the probation period for for a period not exceeding six months of the date of commencing the work and he may terminate the worker service during this period after notifying the worker in writing at least for 10 days 14 days ahead before in the old law we never we never experienced such a a notice before termination or even 14 days or even 10 days 30 days but now it's mandatory that the worker needs to inform the employee that there is a termination on the way 14 days ahead before serving the termination and the worker may not be appointed under probation period more than one time for sure this is uh this is again in fact as well and in the even that the worker wishes to move which is the opposite of the close number uh one of the article number nine in this case the worker wishes to move during the probation period to work for another employer in the state for example i have i have experienced this like too many times during the corona and unit during coffee the the business was not so good and and it was not stable so i i saw my colleagues serving serving uh notice and they leave immediately they just the notice doesn't have 30 or 20 days or it's a prevention period and most of us knows how to terminate a contract unlimited contract within the probation period but right now this is not not any more available so in case that the employee wishes to leave the the facility during the preparation period to work for another employer and to work is the first scenario because there are two scenarios in this case so the first scenario is to work for another employer he will proceed but with another employer in the states he must notify the original employer which is the current employer in writing within a period not less than one month so right now the obligation on the employee is to serve the notice not less than one month during the preparation period and this is very new as of the date of his desire to terminate the contract today is may first i'm i'm wishing to leave the the the company by june 1st so it should serve the termination right now i'm sorry yeah determination of the contract i should serve the notice 30 days at least before the the day that i am desired to to leave the new employer the new employer which is the new one shall compensate the original employer with the costs of recruiting on contracting with the worker unless agreed otherwise and this is very important because there is a new obligation between the workers between the between the employers there was no such obligation in the old law but but the new law regulates a new obligation between two employers which one of them uh is moving his employee to the another one so there are there are also two outcome we can we can highlight behind this it is very important to say that no employer in the uee has the right to ask his employee for any visa expenses for any medical expenses for any transportation expenses for any uh plane expenses uh documents whatsoever he incurred as a fees he doesn't have the right to ask the employee under nor circumstances but he has the right for a compensation let's be fair but this compensation should be paid by the new employer by the new company company x there is an employee left the company and he will join company z so company z should know that this employee is leaving this company to join this company during the probation period and company z you should compensate my current employer with this amount as my visa so there will be a communication between both companies between both employers but the main obligation is on the employee to disclose his desire that i am leaving the company to work with this company nothing wrong with it but it should be followed as that so so both rights are are protected and and and at the end we are fair uh between the employee and the employer so once again if the uh if the employer wishes to terminate the employee during the preparation period he should serve a 14 days notice and if the employee wishes to leave the company for good to work for another company during the preparation period a 30 days notice should be served to the current employer disclosing every detail that i am leaving the company i'm joining other companies i have a signed offer letter and this is the company information so that the current company can contact the new company ask them to reimburse all of the visa and everything and by the way uh that's the noteworthy as well so we are asking what why am i have to pay for that and then i will i will pay again to onboard the the employee the the good thing is that the the visa and all entitlements would be moved to the new company and the new company will not pay an extra fees to onboard the company or to uh it will be only paid as to modify the contract to modify the the the employer the sponsorship and everything related to the contract but all measure fees which being paid already to the employer will not be paid again and there is also another event which is talking about the foreign worker which is to terminate the employment contract during the probation period to leave the state in this case uh the worker uh the employee will not uh join another company will not establish his own company he will not work on the freelance he will just leave the state in this case he must notify the employer in writing at least the 14 days prior to the date specified of the termination of the contract so there is a difference between the employees so the employee itself has two scenarios first he's joining another employer then 30 days notice must be served if he's leaving the state then 14 days must be served and we we shall continue to state the following in the event that he wishes to return to the state so he already served 14 days notice terminated left and then he wishes to come back to the states and obtain a new work permit within three months three months as of the date of leaving the new employer shall pay the compensation is stipulated in the close theory of this article the previous clause what we were talking about so the the the new labor law conserve the right to the new employer to reimburse within three months not only immediately so even if the employee is moving to companies it and before he joined the company said he felt like no companies that is not really good option for me i will go for company t this is another company and his original employer is still there and it's within the three months whatsoever employer he will join he should reimburse to the previous employer all the incur expenses paid to onboard this employee to the previous employer so within three months if he is leaving the state and he wishes to come back to join a new employer within three months the new employer should compensate the previous employer shall pay the compensation stipulated there unless agreed otherwise between the worker and the original employer so uh the if the worker can he that the worker we can understand that the worker can take over this obligation to be executed from his side meaning to say just put my new employer outside of the picture and i will pay all the fees that you incurred this also can go or he can just associate the new employer to pay the compensation to the current employer closed for saying that if either party terminates the employment contract without observing the provisions of this article means without serving the notice and without actually observing the the article itself it shall pay to the second party a compensation equal to the workers wage for the notice period or the remaining period of the notice period meaning to say that in this article they are aiming to serve the notice period if any of the parties ignored the notice period as a stipulated in this article then the same wage and by saying wage that mean the whole salary basic compensation leave transportation accommodation the whole salary not only the basic wage means the whole the total salary so a compensation will be equal to the workers wage for the notice period so if the notice period is 30 days that means a full month's salary if it's 14 days that means a full half month's salary as per the notices because we couldn't see more than 14 days in one month this is the the highest the highest period uh when it comes to the notice period and if the foreign worker if the foreign worker leaves the state without being bombed bound by the provisions of this article he will not be granted a work permit to work in the state for a period of one year of the date of leaving the state uh definitely we had the same uh experience in the previous law but it was a bit uh uh exclusive in in only one one situation which is limited contracts you serve you you preach a limited contract you get one year labor ban but here even if you did not preach the contract even if you served the 14 days notice but you did not follow the the articles uh especially article mine you did not follow the provisions in this article the employee will not get a work permit in the state for a period of one year and by saying state i think if we went to back to the definitions of this of this law we will find the state means the entire uee so you can't do this in dubai and search for work in abu dhabi it's the same state the ministry may accept some some job categories skill levels from the specified yeah it's it's also the same that this penalty could be waived on certain job skills and specifications who continues the leaves and also the leaves is a very interesting topic to be brought up the leaf system ing to the new law has been greatly changed and the additional leaves and the new leaf system enables the employee to use various leads ing to the situation he's passing through well actually we can say that the new leaves are designed especially to fulfill the needs of the worker uh the employee whatsoever the nature of the employee i mean male or female both of them has special and different needs and the new law covered the the needs of both of them as we will see right now uh and we can start with the annual leaf which is uh the the the the most the most rebitable question which which i always receive is the in reverse to the uh the full payment or basic when it comes to the annual leave calculation is the full payment is the basic is it basic plus accommodation we will see that now so the worker shall be entitled to an annual leave with full pay not less than 30 days for each year of his extended surface the year has been defined in this low as 365 days full georgian year full year 365 days below one year joined may 1st 2020 may 2nd 2022 is entitled to 30 days full payment full bait uh i think most of us know that but i i want to highlight this fact that is it comes in the full payment same thing same thing if if the employee did not use the leave at the time and you wish to reimburse later in the gratuity in the end of service full payment as well as we will see now so two days for each month if his surface period is more than six months and less than one year so in this case we might understand that before the six months employee does not deserve any any leaves and but under the uh the new law we will navigate uh the de fact behind if the employees serve five months only and he is asking for a leave he's asking for urgently for some reason that will be brought up now and at least for parts of the year of the last year he spent at work in the event that his surface ends before using his annual leave balance means that he serves one year and seven months seven months will be two days each month the part-time worker is entitled to annual leave ing to the actual working hours the full-time worker is entitled to an annual leave ing to the days of work as we have experienced it now but here the the part-time is ing to his actual working hours the employer may agree to grant the worker a leave from the balance of his annual leave during the preparation period and this was the scenario i was just talking about what if the employee spent five months working in the facility and he came to you as a ceo and tells you that i have a situation that i need to be there and i want to consume 10 days from my annual days annual lives in the future this is still five months below the six months so he doesn't even deserve two days per month as per the law but in this case the new law grant the employer the right to give and agree and grant the worker any from the balance of his annual leave during the preparation periods and the worker shall retain the right to be compensated for the for the for the remain of his annual leave balance if he have not passed the probation period uh if we read the last part again that would might that would bring a lot of questions which is the worker the employee shall retain the right to be compensated for the remain of his annual leave balance if he have not passed the depreciation period means that the probation period they have calculated exactly same as if you did not pass the the one year and you're below one year in six months we have included the probation period but conditional it is not uh it is unconditional it's conditional that he needs to pass the probation period because here the condition is we have not passed the preparation period and we will see the following as it says the worker the employee must enjoy his leave in the year of entitlement the employer may determine the dates of these leagues in ance with the work requirements and in agreement with the worker in agreement with the worker not forced to in agreement or grant them in rotation among the establishments workers in order to ensure the progress of his work um and in order to ensure the progress of his work is actually a close in this law number four that one of the obligations base one of the obligations from from the employer side is to secure the environment that the employee can work ing to the work title in his visa so and he must notify the worker the employee of the specified date of joining of enjoying his leave at least one month in advance so the employer has the right to refuse the annual leave requests and that will be based on the uh the requirements the work requirements for example some facilities uh uh are facing a very heavy workload during winter some facilities are facing heavy workload during summer and in both cases all employees should work together to push the company towards a very successful uh target and in this case if one or two employees wants to go on a vacation at the same time then the employer has the right to retain one of them request and refuse it or to postpone it later just to pass the the workload or to pass whatever the company is passing through however there is a limitation to that the employer cannot just refuse based on a workload for more than one time so for more for more than two years it is for habitat that the employer has the right to refuse the the the annual leave request just he has he just have uh the right to refuse only one time so by the next year the employer should be well planned that this employee will get his annual leave and of course by the next year the employee will deserve 60 days 30 days from the past year and 30 days from the current year also the employee should notify the company that he is he will have his leave on this date which will be one month in advance but we as legal team or or as hr team we always advise the employees to give us a notice 60 60 i'm sorry six months ahead four months ahead five months ahead so that we can plan the uh leave for this employee we can we can hand over the tasks to his fellows in the company we can we can find a replacement if he's going more than one month so both sides are fairly enjoying their rights in this in this clause we can say that the worker may open the approval of the employer so the employee may open the approval of the employer and in ance with the applicable organizational regulations of in the establishment carry forward the balance of his of his and will leave to the following year and this is applicable only one time it can't be repeated so if the worker for example is working for 13 years he cannot do that for the 13 years just one time only and the worker is entitled to the wage for the period of his annual leave and as we define the wage before which means full salary and that was regarding the annual leave there is also arrested days risk days means the weekends rest days means the holidays in the states res days means ramadan and whatever festival uh that the state uh regulates as an off day so it's whether it's established by law or by the agreements shall be included in the annual leave sorry meaning to say that if the employee is enjoying his annual leave which is 30 days and for sure during the 30 days it will fall like two or three maybe four weekends which is eight days those eight days are calculated from his uh annual leave so it's included to the annual leave period if the annual leave enjoyed by the worker he's inter interrupted by and is considered part of it unless the employment contract or the organizational regulations enforce in the establishment stipulates what is more beneficial to the workers what is the meaning of organizational regulations and this is something i would like to directly address to the uh to the companies especially the companies not the firms there is a bio policy for each company that it should be there it should be written in a place that all employees can look read and understand what is this bio policy means internal policies for the company some companies are doing this in a very professional way when you are signing a contract or offer letter with the company there will be more documents to be signed which is one of them is the bio policy bio policy is one of the most important document that the company can later on protect its rights if the matter was raised before the courts the bio policy was literally mentioned in the law as a mandatory document that the employee should read understand and sign that he understood the bible the bible is very is very is very simple a set of policies that the employee should attend this time should we this time should wear this dress should she should should retain his his personal look should the example should notify the employer that he's leaving his he would use his app before so it's all the regulations would stipulate the relationship between the employee and his colleagues employees and the employer inside the facility itself it's very important it should be there and this is the meaning of organizational regulations in force in the establishment itself because we have no law above the law it is one law but this law could contain this uh file policy and the bible is very important so i i'm directly advising uh to have such a bible see in every company that that would be a very good decision the employer may not prevent the worker from benefiting from his entitled annual leave for more than two years and this is something i have indicated before that the employer doesn't have the ultimate right to refuse refuse refuse just two times to refuse for more than two years so this year next year third year he can't do that unless the worker wishes to carry it forward or obtain a cash allowance so unless it's connected exclusively to the employee decision the employer shouldn't interfere the employee decision shouldn't affect his decision of taking the leave leave it take an impersonator of of money of cash the employer shouldn't interfere any of these the employer has as we call it the veto right like no i'm i'm actually not agreeing to your requests on the leave for this year for the second year for third year no you have you have no right to refuse this so the employer may not prevent the worker from benefiting from his entitled and only for more than two years unless the worker the employee which is to carry it forward for the next year or obtain cash allowance maybe he's facing some financial problems uh in ance with the organizational regulations force and establishment the biopolicy jumps into the scene again and actually it's it's it's seriously it's very important that the the the organizational regulations to be everywhere in in the company and a noteworthy it should be also translated in in all of the languages that the work environment contains so arabic spanish english urdu hindi everyone read understand sign and agrees to follow this bio policy later on and and this is a practical example actually this is an example that we we are always facing as a legal team they come to you my employee comes without necktie he comes without a formal the the color of the of the suit is not formal what what do i do with him and at this time the first question you're asking is there a bio policy this is very important because if there is no fire policy there will be no action taken against them if you try to terminate him based on that this is not a reason could be eligible to a termination the worker is entitled to receive wages for the days of the entitled trista days if he leaves the work before using it so that's that's agreed actually regardless of their duration in relation to the period of which he has not obtained his leave and finally the executive regulations shall specify the rules and conditions for organizing vacations and the compensation for them and by reviewing the executive regulations you will understand more and more how to deal with the vacations and how to handle your employee requests without a without making it seem without the break the relation between the employer and employee because the refusal is always sensitive matter and not only for the vacation but for the employee requests that was for the employees whether male or female and we will go back to the male employees since we will now talk about the female employee the maternity leave which is i see that it is a phenomenal uh amendment in this law in the new law because in the previous law it wasn't that effective but here we go the female worker shall be entitled to a maternity leave of 60 days ing to the following the first 45 days was full bay uh previously it was only 30 and the following 15 days as far as i remember it was only 30. the following 15 days was half day and whatever comes after that it's uh unpaid the female worker me after using her maternity leave be absent from work without pay without pay for a period not exceeding another 45 consecutive or intermediate days if such absence is due to an illness suffered by her or her child as a result of pregnancy or childbirth birth and that does not enable her to return to her work said illness shall be proven by a medical certificate issued by the medical authority and this is a valuable advice to all hr legal teams companies do not approve any uh request work from home request based on illness or anything unless you have a certificate from a a doctor or otherwise you can do if you if you saw the employee employees really cannot proceed work from from from the company so make things easy go proceed from home but if you want to protect your rights you should have a certificate from a well-known medical facility says that this employee needs two needs four minutes 15 minutes 50 days of leave but it should be based on a medical certificate and not just an email moving on we can say uh that the same illness the claimed illness shall be proven by a medical certificate issued by the medical authority and this period shall not be included into the period of service for which the female worker is entitled to the end of service graduating so what whatsoever comes after the 45 days the maternity leave shall not be included into the end of the service the graduate or the period of contribution to the retirement system means the gratuity as well the female worker is entitled to maternity leave stated in clause 1 of this article which we have uh discussed if she gives purse after six months or more of pregnancy whether the the newborn is alive or dead the female worker in the event that she gives birth to a sick or disabled child whose health condition requires a constant companion ing to a medicare report again they are also highlighting again that it should be ing to medicare report medical certificate issued by the medical authority is entitled to a leave of 30 days with full days starting after the end of the maternity leave period so the maternity leave period is 45 days plus 30 days in case her child is sick disabled or needs a companion all day all the time full pay starting after the end of the maternity leave period and she has the right to extend the leave for a period of 30 days without pain not half nothing zero the employer must grant the female worker maternity leave whenever she requires whenever she requests at any time starting as of the last day of the month immediately preceding the month in which she is expected to give birth and this shall be proven by a certificate from the medical authority we can understand from this close that the law wants to size the start and the end of the of the maternity leave where i can say the start and the end can be mutually agreed between the employer and the employee as per the the needs of the employee but everything should be written from a well-known medical authority or a medical facility obtaining the maternity leave or the absence referred into this article should not to her rights to obtain the other leaves meaning to say that there is no connection between the maternity leave and this is a given fact and other other types of leave and in case the female worker works for another employer during the period of her leave authorized in this article the original employer may deprive her from her wage for the period of the leave or recover what he paid for her not only that we suggest not only to stop here because this is a bad faith from the employee and he can terminate her based on that as well because working for another employer was mentioned exclusively in the termination clause which i will we will navigate uh later on however uh the the the the latest the minimal uh punishment that he can uh give is to just to deprive her from the wage for this period if she worked for 30 days 45 days he just can ask her for compensation or not to weigh here this this time it is not permissible to terminate the surface of a female worker to give her notice because of pregnancy or because she has obtained maternity leave or because she's absent from work in ance with the provisions of this article so it should be all falls under that she's suffering the maternity she's suffering being pregnant or he just gave birth newly gave birth or as stimulated in this article exclusively shouldn't be interpreted anywhere else after returning from maternity leave and for a period not exceeding six months of the date of giving birth the female worker is entitled to one or two list periods per day risk period per day to press feed her child provided that the period of both periods shall not exceed one hour so the the we can understand that uh the the employee the female employee is entitled to one more hour additional to the lunch hour it couldn't be the same lunch hour the lunch hour is respected by law because it's mentioned in the law and in the early articles that the employee cannot work more than five hours consecutive five hours unless he takes one hour of uh one hour of additional to that if she's uh applicable if she's eligible for this article she's eligible to one more hour the worker is entitled to a paid leave in the following cases and when whenever we are reading a law and we we read in the following cases that means that exclusively in these cases and cannot interpret it into another cases mooring leave of five days in the event of the death of the newborn and three days in the event of the death of the mother father son brother sister grandson grandfather or grandmother starting as a of the days of the date of death this one of the new leaf system means more uh cold morning leave which is if unfortunately one of your relatives died and he's one of those mother father son brother sister that's grade one and grade two grandson grandfather grandmother that's great three uh and grade four as well if one of them died you have the right to take five or three days uh the five is only for the suppose and the three days for the even that any one of your relatives from the second third and fourth grade have passed away you have going to take three days to consider the the parental leave for a period of five working days apparently refers to the parents where the new law enables the parents to spend more time with the family to bond the connection between the families and it's something very important and on high demand these days so the new law gave the five days for the worker whether the father or mother who has a child took care of his child to be enjoyed continuously within a period of six months as uh of the date of the child's birth uh so each each six months he has five days to be understood like this way any other leaves determined by the cabinet the camera it means the executive regulations and the question is the law never mentioned about the compensation in this case what will be the compensation of the first number a and number b it will be full paid compensation the worker may be granted a study leave for a period of 10 business days per year for the worker who is enrolled by affiliation or regularly in one of the educational institutions approved in the state in order to perform the tests provided the provided that the period of service with the employer is not last less than two years and meaning to say that if you have an employee who is studying and he's his circus exceeded the two years he has the right to uh to receive 10 days days per year so yearly he has 10 paid days to perform tests not to study to perform a test not to attend the lecture to perform a test or to ceremony it's also same as test if it's mandatory in some countries that you need to be there but not to attend lectures not to raise the the study hours just for the test the national worker and this is especially for for emiratis the national worker is entitled to a full-time leave to perform the national and uh reserve service with bay so if he's joining the military or a national service he's entitled to a full-time leave in ance with the legislation in fourth in force in this state means that if he is if he for example he's leaving for he to join the military to serve uh in the military for one year then he's entitled to have a full time leave in order to obtain the leads referred in this article approve of the same must be provided by the concerned authorities so the employee if the employee came to you and gave you this proof in your hand as a document you should refuse you should directly contact the concerned department and to coordinate between them to give you the proof that the employee will be absent for the next one year and the executive regulations as well right now we've reached the termination and the termination of the contracts uh i would focus on the cases of this missile without warning this missile without warning means from the employer against the employee same as from the employee against the employer without warning warning here means the notice and the warning letters as we will see on on very very specific clauses article 44 stipulates that the employer may dismiss the worker without warning in other words the employer may dismiss the work the employee without warning letter or or notice or anything that that might that might be taken as it's a warning of determination after there is always a condition after conducting written investigation with him conducting a written investigation with him means that you need to send all of this should be by email all of this should be written in email should be taken as as evidenced because later on before the court and this is from a practical background for the past five years we've saw a lot of cases falling down in the court because there is no evidence that he have invited him for an investigation and later on we will see more for example after conducting the written investigation the decision the decision of the investigation to dismiss shall be in written and reasoned the employer or his representative shall hand it to the worker in the following cases before we navigate the cases we need to navigate the conditions three conditions to apply on all of the uh dismissal without warning uh uh cases so first of all conductor written investigation directly sent to the employee on his personal email cc his corporate email and also the hr team the legal team whatsoever in the company that we are inviting you for an investigation in regards to this incident happened on this day kindly be there at this time this is an evidence that i have invited him to an investigation or heir what if he did not respond it's okay you have invited her it so you obliged the first condition the decision to dismiss shall be in written and reasoned reason is very important reason is is really important a lot of termination letters are issued without reason there it excuse me the the reason could be a valid reason could be considered reason could be not valid reason could be whatsoever isn't but it should be recent we are terminating here based on one two three four five six as a decision we decided to terminate your services immediately the reason here i would say that it should fall under the following cases exclusively under the following cases if you are aiming to win a case before the court if there is no if there is no uh if there is no coordination between you and the employee and you fear that the employee will go directly to the court with the dismissal uh letter and he will sue you before the court then your reason should be as as uh as the following cases 10 cases exactly after conducting written investigation and uh write it and reason it the employer or his representative shall hand it to the worker this is very important also i'm receiving a lot of questions the uh the employee refuses to sign uh the investigation uh or the decision or whatsoever the employee shouldn't sign the employee you you as an employer or as a representative from my employer you've took a decision he is not associate with you in this decision this is your own decision you will take over the consequences and i have decided to terminate your services so the decision should be served by email into his personal email corporate email and cc and whatever mcc from your colleagues but it should be a delivered handed delivered or handed do not wait for his signature do not wait for him for his acknowledgement don't mention in the email please acknowledge receive no i'm not waiting for acknowledge i delivered it i hand it to the email that you're using it into our interviews into our correspondence incorporate into this is the email that you are using it and the law of obligated me to hand not to acknowledge or wait for your acknowledgements the employer or his representative shall hand it to the worker in any of the following cases and i added exclusive cases because it's very very very exclusive cases if it's a proven that the worker imprisonment imprisonments wasn't him wasn't er in the present uh another person or has i'm sorry impersonates impersonates means that he have uh introduced himself as to be another one another person so i'm introducing myself to be dr ahmad gabra i have a doctorate degree and i don't have all of that this is and impersonate impersonate with a mother with another impersonate another person or he submitted false certificates or documents indeed the the documents or certificates once discovered a term it shall be issued in this case you as an employer you will not be waiting for his acknowledgement you will not be waiting for his signature this is something i i truly trust if the worker and moreover if this impersonate or false certificates caused any damages to the company the company has the right to ask for compensation against the employee and at some times uh it reaches the uh the the criminal actions um if the worker makes a mistake that results in a grave material loss uh to the employer or if the worker uh liberty uh harms the property of the employer and acknowledges the same um by mistake making a mistake is actually could be defined as per the the seniority level of the employee is not like i made a mistake okay what's your seniority level you're a senior you're a manager you're a supervisor you can't say made a mistake uh it should be said an accident happens there is an excellent habit in this case there is an accident accidentally having that but not a mistake or if you are an internal level entry level junior level uh mid level yes you can say i made a mistake however if this mistake results in a grave material loss to the employer or if the worker the employee harms the property harms the property intentionally harms the property of the employer and acknowledges the same how he will acknowledge is the same they are the investigation conducting an investigation and the investigation should be a very detailed on the incident itself so an investigation and the investigation i would recommend before 48 hours of the incident to have an investigation 48 hours only investigation should be an introduction and general questions did you came to the work on this day what time did you came what time did you punch in how was the the the atmosphere inside the the company before the incident and did you committed this the company or the company representative charges you committing one two three four five six that's in case of a material loss or or or or harms the property because this these are damages damages means compensation compensation means liability liability means acknowledgement provided that the letter shall inform the ministry of the incident within seven business days that's why i am recommending 48 investigations that you have ahead of time to the ministry of an incident this is seven business days uh let's give let me give a live example example an employee put a fire in the archive of the company intentionally and the camera has caught him and everything of course aside from calling the police aside from doing a criminal case against them you should also inform the ministry of labor of the of this incident to protect your rights as an employer aside from the criminal rights aside from the civil rights as compensations and everything as as of the time of his acknowledgement of the incident also uh if during working hours is found drunk or under the influence of an architect or a physiotrophic substance or has committed an act contrary to public morals in the workplace and i would like also to share an experience that i i have had before representing the company that the company was claiming that an employee is about to raise a complaint at the ministry of labor on the background that they have brought a alcoholic drinks into the company this is uh definitely contriving contrary to public moral in the working place because it's in the same clause as saying that during working hours he's found the drunk and by the way working hours mean working hours the lunch hour is included into working hours meaning to say that during lunch hour you cannot bring alcohol or do any public any any acts that in contradictions the public morals if in the course of his work the employee commits against the employer or the manager or any of his supervisors or colleagues a verbal physical assault or abusive or any other form of assault banishable under the laws in force in the states and of course we all understand what is the meaning of physical assault physical assault is is already known to all of us but what is the meaning of verbalis so verbal assault is not only insulting is not only cursing i'm sorry or saying bad words verbal assault and it was a personal experience was with a someone who is very famous in some field in here in dubai that he has sent an email to his colleague in another country in the gcc calling him a drama queen and believe me he had received the termination based on the on the verb of drama queen however drama queen he he brought an evidence from his son that his son is like seven years old and he's studying in the primary school in in uk drama queen is mentioned in one of the books that they are delivering to him that drama queen is a very normal verb but it puts something bad into here into the heart of your colleague so this is also punishable if the worker is absent from work without the legitimate reason or an executes acceptable to the employer for more than 20 consecutive days or seven consecutive a month 20 20 non-consecutive days or seven consecutive days in this case uh and and the most probably that applies when the employee goes for a vacation and then he's not yet here he's supposed to come first he's supposed to come second but until 12 he's not here after the day number seven you have the full right to immediately terminate his services seven consecutive days or 20 non-consecutive days the 29 consecutive days per year seven consecutive days is one week one one seven days and seven days is is not working days it's the calendar days as mentioned seven consecutive days means calendar days five working days and two weekends if he did not send an email in the weekend that he's in the country and he will show up on this day and you should reply if any case for my colleagues from the hr or the legal department or whatever controls the belief system in a company the employee left and he did not come back after his leave and it's been five days you send an investigation to him you send an email to him if you reply to the email that i will be in the company in the premises at this day on this day this is undertaking from his side if he did not show up send him an email on the same day he did not show up based on that we will conduct an internal investigation and we will let you know the decision by the end of the day thank you very much you're terminated as well as you can also uh complain at the the minister of labor you can put an absolute case against them you can you can initiate a lot of actions especially on this close if the worker illegally exploits his job position to obtain personal results and gains and this is also it has two sides that has criminal side and and civil side aside from the uh aside from the from the labor rights that the employer should claim against the employee in this case because illegally exploit his job his possession that means a non-confidentiality bridge and also to obtain personal results that means uh the uh the bad the bad faith of dealing as a company representative and games of course the games should be legitimate if it's not legitimate that's criminal if the worker if the worker works for another establishment without complying with the controls and procedures established in disregard and the controls and procedures wouldn't be known unless we have the bio policy we have organizational policies inside the company eventually we we can speak about the end of service i know that this is an excited exciting topic and it's very interesting to be brought up in this webinar we have article 51 which stipulates the gratuity for the full-time workers the national workers is entitled to an end of service gratuity over the end of the service and in ance with the legislations regulating pensions and social security in force in the state uh for those companies who have hired emiratis and local citizens i would strongly recommend you to check on the executive regulations in regards to this article to understand exactly what does it mean what does it mean in ance with the legislation regulating pensions and social security in force in the state should be understood to avoid any uh penalties the foreigners the foreign full-time worker who has completed one or more years of continuous service is entitled to an end of service to open up on the end of his surface calculated ing to the basic wage this is very clear as follows the wage of 21 days for the first five years of surface less than one year there is no graduating the wage of 30 days for each year in excess of that that refers to the five years in case the worker worked for five years and then you continue one more year the calculation should be as follows six years based on the 30 days not five years of 21 and one year of 30 and just clarifying this point because that also may raise a confusion at some at some stage if he is working for five years then he is eligible to receive 21 days for each year based on the basic for the six years if he entered into this skinny of six years and above then all the previous years should be dealt with as 30 days per year and the foreign worker is entitled to a bonus for parts of the year in pro-operation to the amount spent in work provided that he he has completed one year of continuous service upon us four parts of the