Q: Dear Sir, I'm Satheesh from Abu Dhabi. For the past 3 years, I was working for a free zone company in Dubai. Our company have clients from both Dubai and Abu Dhabi and doing medical billing services for hospitals and medical centres. I was working with one of the company's clients which is a government hospital in Abu Dhabi (please note - govt is removing our company by Sept.). My concern is that the hospital is interested to recruit me as their employee. But I already signed a limited contract with my company which has "Non-competition non-solicitation agreement". My contract states that I cannot join their clients or competitors for 24 months after my visa expiry or end of service. If I violate this law they will take legal actions and they can ask for compensation (Law no. 8 of 1980 for UAE and Law no. 5 of 1985 for Dubai). My visa is expiring by Aug 25th, so I'd like to join there. Can I join this Abu Dhabi government hospital or not? If I join, is there any legal issue I have to face from my company?

Q: I have signed a labour contract with the non-competing clause for 12 months. I would like to know, how this can be enforced if I join another company whose activities are not exactly the same but are similar. I'm working for a manufacturing company and would like to join the trading company, which is my former employer. My current employer is not comfortable with me going back to my former employer and is asking me to refrain from this based on the clause in my contract. Kumar

Q: Good morning. An American company is working as an advisor for the Dubai government. The company has got employees to sign a non-competition clause document, prohibiting them from working for the same clients for a period of 1 year. Now, employees resigned and might work directly or indirectly with the same clients. The company is threatening to sue the former employees for non-compliance with that clause and make them obtain the company's legal authorization to do such work. Can you please advise the level of legality and also what is the appropriate next step?

Q: Dear Nadine, I have recently resigned from my company based in Dubai due to non-payment of my salary for the last three months (Apr/May & Jun 2019). I resigned on 11th June 2019 and served my notice period till 30th June 2019. My company requested to serve 30 days’ notice period which I refused to serve DUE to non-payment of salary. Finally, I requested them to cancel my visa which is under process and soon it will get cancelled hopefully by this weekend. I have also requested them to pay my dues/others which include: 1) Salary for three months 2) 6 years gratuity 3) ALL of 10 days As per my employment contract, an employee may not take up any employment directly or indirectly through a subcontractor with the client of the existing employer for a period of one year after the last day of the service period. Under the above scenario, can I join my ex-employer – client directly or indirectly through a subcontractor? Please advise. Regards, S. H.

Q: Can an ex-employer take any legal action against you for joining a competitor? The work geographies are different in both organizations.

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: I have an offer from our old client whose contract ended 5 years ago to join; can I join them? In my labor contract, it's stated that I cannot join the company's client till 2 years post resignation or termination. Kindly advise

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).