Q: Dear sir/madam, My employer terminated me without notice. She is asking for a refund of the visa expenses. Do I need to pay them as they are the ones who broke the contract?

Q: Hi. Companies A & B are owned by the same person. I was hired under A with a job offer stating that if I do not finish my 2-year contract, I need to pay visa costs and training, etc. However, my visa was processed under B which is a DMCC company. And non-completion of visa payments was not mentioned in the submitted contract during visa processing. Is my offer letter with A still binding, and do I have to pay if I will only stay with the company for 1 year?

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, I am working in a company on probation for 2 months. Due to a mistake done by the former employee who worked in my position, the employer gave me a termination letter with 30 days' notice without considering my explanation. Also, the prior employee came to train me for these two months and his payment was deducted from my salary. The employer asked me to pay more than 6000 AED as visa cost from this month's & next month's salary. As per the contract letter I signed with him, there is a clause as I have to bare the cost of employment (visa related) if terminated on probation. Kindly help on this since I have to work without payment till my last working day even though it is not a voluntary resignation but an unfair termination.

Q: Hello, I recently resigned from my company by giving proper notice period after the completion of my probation period. I have my own visa and they issued a temporary work permit for me. They have deducted that visa cost from my last salary. Is this legal? If it is illegal, what can I do? Kindly advise me!

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, My visa is on a fixed-term contract, and I have completed 15 months. I have worked the 30-day notice period. My company's offer letter mentions that if I resign early, the company will require me to cover half of the visa cost. However, my labor contract does not mention the visa cost. Now, my company is asking me to pay half of the visa cost. What should I do?

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, If I have already resigned after 1 year and it was a forced resignation, will my current employer pay all the compensation that the old employee has spent on (visa, plane ticket, training)?

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, I am an expatriate in Dubai. I joined a company in Dubai, and my contract started in November 2023. It is a limited contract. Due to some issues with the management, they informed me that I would have to leave the company in March 2024, which I did. Upon asking them to cancel my visa so I can return home, they said I have to pay around 5000 AED towards the visa expenses. I have asked them for the exact amount, but they haven’t provided it yet. My passport is with them. I would like to check whether I have to pay the visa expense to them. Since I am not aware of the formalities, I haven’t approached the Labour Department to get my passport back to leave. I fear they may cause more trouble if I initiate a complaint. I would like to seek your valuable advice on how to proceed to claim my passport and exit UAE. Please help!

Further to my article Scam Alert: Fake UAE Job Offers, I believe the scam artists have read the same. Yes, I call them the artists as it is an art to fool people. They have paid attention to every aspect of my article and now have come up with an innovative way to scam the job seekers. Therefore, my revised strategy in this article.

The UAE has adopted a major reform in its legislative system that brought about 40 new laws and amendments to the company law, criminal law, personal status, among others. The amendments aim to develop the legislative structure in various sectors, the labor law being one of these, was the most recent. We try in this article to shed light on the changes introduced with the new labor law and their significance on both, the employer and employee.

The provisions of this Law, known as "UAE Labour Law", govern the relationship between employers and employees and other labour matters in the United Arab Emirates. There are special labour related regulations applicable in some of the free zones in the UAE.

The provisions of this Decree-Law, known as "New UAE Labor Law", govern labour relations in the private sector of the United Arab Emirates. The New Labor Law repeals the previous UAE Labor Law (Federal Law No. (8) of 1980).