Unfair Dismissal in the “New Labor Law”

The most prominent amendments that came in the Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 regarding the regulation of labor relations, the “New Labor Law” is what is stipulated in Article 47 that:

The termination of the workers by the employer is unlawful if the termination was due to filing a serious complaint to the Ministry or filing a case against the employer that has been proven true.

The employer is obligated to pay fair compensation to the worker, estimated by the competent court if it is proven that the dismissal is unlawful in accordance with Clause (1) of this article: the amount of compensation is determined by the type of work, the amount of damage sustained by the worker and the length of his service. In all cases, it is stipulated that the amount of compensation does not exceed the wage of the worker, for a period of (3) three months calculated according to the last wage he was receiving.

It is understood from this Article that the legislator has limited compensation for unfair dismissal to one case only, which is the case of the worker filing a complaint against the employer, which the legislator described as “seriousness,” meaning that the legislator wanted to close the door of complaints and malicious lawsuits that were previously filed in order to get Rich without Reason at the expense of employers or blackmail them.

Recently Abu Dhabi Labor Court issued a judgment No.5051-2022 on 10/5/2022 stated-: “Whereas it was stipulated by Article 47 of Federal Decree-Law No. (33) 2021, regarding the regulation of labor relations (..) based on the foregoing, it was confirmed that dismiss of the plaintiff from work according to the email from the defendant on 13/09/2022, which is attached to the defendant’s memorandum, the court found that the reason for dismissal of the plaintiff was not due to his filing a serious complaint before the Ministry of labor or filing a case against the employer has been proven to be serious, the court will decide to reject the request.