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Signed papers considered as a declaration by courts

Sameer El Azrak represents Al Moutawaa Wa Al Azrak, Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Readers may e-mail their questions to ktedit@emirates.net.ae or send it to Khaleej Times Dubai P.O. Box 11243.

Q: I worked as a finance manager in a company. After sometime, I realised that the nature of work did not require a manager, rather an accountant. I advised the owner of the company, who is a friend, to appoint an accountant and save the salary he is paying me for a manager’s post. Last February, he cancelled my visa and made me sign a document stating that I had received my full dues. As I knew that this was a formality for processing visa cancellation, I signed on the papers without actually being paid the dues. The owner of the company failed to pay me the salary of 18 days. When I tried to contact him directly, he started avoiding me. I tried several times to make my request for payment of the amount which is more than Dh5,000, I got no positive response. I complained to the Ministry of Labour, but I did not get any support based on the fact that I signed a document stating receipt of my full dues. Can I complain directly to the court? Please advise me what to do.

Answer: Signing on a document admitting you have received your dues fully from your employer is a declaration that the judicial authorities take as proof. Besides, you are a finance manager which means you are fully aware of the laws and via this document you are in fact clearing your employer from any financial obligation towards you. Seeking the ministry’s support to get your dues is the correct way and the right channel to resort to, but you should have insisted on taking your complaint to the court.

You may try again and if your employer still does not positively respond to the ministry, you can insist on taking up the case to the court, and there the only way is to take an oath. If your employer takes an oath that he has paid all your dues, including the 18-day salary, then you can do nothing about it — consider your dues lost.

Lease renewal

Q: I am staying in a flat in Deira owned by a real estate company for the last four years. The company belongs to a group having many companies in the UAE and outside. I got a notice from the company to vacate the flat because they wanted it for the staff of their group of companies. After a long argument, they gave me a six-month notice and asked me to sign a six-month non-renewable contract. I refused to sign but I gave a cheque for six months’ rent. They accepted this arrangement, but without issuing me a lease. I do not want to sign a six-month contract because I may not find a flat in the area where I am living. Do they have a right to vacate me? What should I do?

Answer: Should the company refuse to renew your lease on the same terms, including the duration of the contract, then you can seek the support of the Rent Committee of the Dubai Municipality. You can file a complaint against the landlord who is represented by the company. The committee would summon the company and ask for the renewal of the contract for one year as the committee in such cases does not accept its claim that it will use the flat for accommodating its staff. This is because you say that the company is a real estate company which owns, rents, and invests in real estate, which means that it owns or invests in a number of properties. This fact deprives the real estate company from its right to vacate your flat, in particular to use it. In this case, its claim will be considered void and baseless, and that it was used just to put pressure on you to vacate the flat.

NOC needed?

Q: I am a domestic servant working in Sharjah and having completed the contract. Can I work for a company? Do I need to submit an NOC, or any signature? What are the procedures? If the employer is very abusive, to whom should I complain? Will I get a permission to change job without a ban?

Answer: Para C of Article No. 3 of the Labour Law states that provisions of this law shall not apply to domestic servants employed in private residences. Accordingly, a domestic servant works for a company even if the labour contract is complete and as long as he is sponsored by his employer. He cannot do that, even if his employer permitted him to work by giving him an NOC.

However, a domestic servant can switch his job to work in a private company provided that his servant’s visa is cancelled, because if he did that while holding a domestic servant’s visa, he will subject himself and his employer and sponsor to legal actions and penalties. It is worth clarifying to the enquirer and all readers that the NOC is not a document based on which a sponsorship transfer is processed. And, it is not a document that permits working for a non-sponsoring party.

The NOC is usually issued by the sponsor after he cancels the visa of the sponsored employee, allowing him to work for another sponsor after finishing his relationship with him. However, the authorities concerned have the right to consider or to totally ignore the NOC. The decisions that regulate the sponsorship transfer that were issued by the cabinet and executed in ministerial decisions specified the categories eligible for sponsorship transfer. Domestic servants are not among those who are eligible for sponsorship transfer.

You can complaint to the police if you were subject to ill-treatment, such as physical assault. If you feel that you were ill-treated by other means, you can complain with the recruitment agency that should intervene to reach an amicable solution, or grant you the right not to renew your contract upon its expiry. If you want to switch your job from a domestic servant to a worker in a company that belongs to your same sponsor, that is subject to the approval of the Labour Ministry, the authority that has the right to approve or reject the new labour contract. Should the Labour Ministry approve of the contract, there will not be any ban stamp.