Q: Hi. The contract between a client and a company ended on 18 October 2018. Can the client employ me despite a restraint agreement between me and the former company?

Q: Is the non-competition clause applicable in case an employer terminates an employee? In this case, can you work for a competitor and take your existing clients to your new employer?

Q: Employment non-competition evaluation. Employment contract section 11.

Q: An employee was found to be working on his weekly day off for a competitor. I (the employer) cannot prove that the employee received any monetary consideration for his work but the fact that he offered his services to a competitor itself is deeply disturbing to the environment of trust and integrity in the company. Needless to say, this employee cannot be trusted in the future. The incident in question was witnessed by someone who knows me personally and the said person called me from the site and reported it to me. It is possible that the employee has been doing this regularly over time but happened to get noticed this time. Can this employee be terminated under Article 120 of the UAE Labour Law? If not, what remedies are available to the employer?

Q: Hi friends, Good day! One of our employees has given resignation. Soon after he resigned, we asked him to return the company assets given to him, however, while returning the mobile, he deleted all information and chat history. He also did factory settings on the mobile. Before the factory setting, he backed up all data on his personal phone. Please advise what remedy the company has against the employee for destroying company data & stealing customer information from the company mobile. Please advise!

Q: Dear sir/madam, We have an employee who has set up a conflicting company where his wife is a partner. We have seen that our sales have dropped in the last few months drastically. I want to understand if we can terminate this employee considering he has cheated the organization and also are we required to pay him his end of service and pending salary?

Q: My husband was working in a private retail company before. While he was working with them, he helped a friend sell his friend's own designs of t-shirts through Facebook. His previous employer saw that and terminated him and they are accusing him that he is copying their designs and stealing customers by selling his friend's items while working which is not true. He threatened my husband that they will sue him and to avoid that, they're gonna remove him from work and will pay him only the days of his work (15 days) which my husband agreed because he doesn't want any trouble. That's what they did. They didn't pay him his gratuity for staying almost 3 yrs with them as well as airline ticket, vacation leave and public holidays. Now it's been a year since it happened and my husband is already working with another company and suddenly his previous employer saw him in a restaurant and asked him why he is there and threatened him that they are gonna sue him still. What do we need to do? Thank you.

Q: Good afternoon, Can you help me? I have a few employees who signed a trade of restraint/non-compete with our company and now left to work for a direct competitor which is in direct conflict with the contract they signed with our company. What can I do as they now try to take my clients with them?

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 law, promulgating UAE Civil Code, govern the civil transactions in the United Arab Emirates. The commercial transactions remain subject to the laws and regulations applicable in their regard.

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).