Q: My employer told me that I will be on vacation for 5 months in my home country due to COVID-19 pandemic, I am worried that they will cancel my visa because 5 months is a very long period. Is there any chance they cancel me when I am in my home country for vacation?

Q: My company has placed all of the employees on unpaid leave due to the COVID-19 situation. Can they legally do this without even paying our basic salary or expenses?

Q: Dear Sir, I am a UAE resident and I work in a Dubi based company in Deira Dubai. I went on vacation on the 1st of March and supposed to come back to Dubai on 25th of March. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, my company asked me to stay in my home country up to 30th June on unpaid leave. Today my manager called me and asked me to send a resignation letter. I wanted to share with you that I was a good performer in my company and was achieving my targets. Is it legal to ask a resignation while I am on leave and they did not initiate termination but asking me to resign? Please also advise, is the company responsible to pay me full gratuity? And if the company terminates me, then am I also eligible to get 3 months salary as compensation? Please help me to cope with this situation. Thanks and regards, A. Z.

Q: Hello I have been working for a company in Dubai for 3 years, and in the current year, the company didn't pay salaries. Overall now, I have 8 months worth of pending salaries + the other end of service benefits. I was chasing them around for months and got tired of it, so I resigned. I filed a complaint against the company, but for 3 weeks the company never reached out for settlement, so finally, I registered a case against the company in court. I am on my husband's visa & my work permit expired months back. What I want to know is: 1. Now that I have registered a court case, what's going to happen next? 2. Will I have to visit court, every time for hearings? 3. I am looking for a new job here, will this court case be any issue in me getting a new job or new employer issuing a new work permit and what can I do to ease the process of new work permit? Appreciate your advice. Thanks, S.

Q: I'm a pilot and my contract with my company says that I will be paid when I'm on site in Abu Dhabi. However, they have decided not to pay me when I'm in quarantine in Abu Dhabi, I've never tested positive and always been ready for work. They are saying that they have a waiver from the government for not paying.

An interview-format article covering the topic of employment issues and laws during COVID-19 in the UAE. This is from the legal podcast of lawyer Ludmila Yamalova, the founder of Lawgical with LYLAW.

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 UAE government introduced the new Unemployment Insurance Law under the Federal Decree-Law No. 13 of 2022 Concerning the Unemployment Insurance Scheme for Unemployed People. The law aims at providing a sort of financial support in case of unemployment for a brief period, probably to help employees who got terminated find another job and avoid failing in other financial obligations.

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).