Is COVID-19 related dismissal legal while the employee is out of UAE?

Article 90 of the UAE Labour Law states that “without prejudice to the instances in which an employer is entitled to dismiss a worker without notice or without the gratuity provided for in this law, an employer shall not dismiss a worker or serve a notice of dismissal on him while the worker is on leave provided for under this section”.

The stipulation in paragraph (j) of Article 120 of the Law on Regulating Work Relationships  and from what is applied in the jurisdiction of this court that the employer may fire the worker without warning in the event of his absence, and that this right requires the absence of the worker without a valid (legitimate) reason for more than 20 non-successive days during one year or more than seven consecutive days, the court has full authority to assess the validity of the employer’s defence, which was expressed in the absence of the worker from work.

Dubai Court has settled that, “The legal concept of force majeure, which if it occurs to the terms binding on both sides of the contract, makes it impossible to implement the obligation in accordance with Article No 1 of Article 273 of the Civil Transactions Law requires for the description of accidents or force majeure to be: exceptional, not familiar, not possible to expect it at the time of contracting nor can it be paid after it occurred and the judge has the jurisdiction to assess this.”

As a conclusion, the termination exists even if it is prohibited as per Article 90, but to decide whether the termination is arbitrary or not, one must refer to the court’s jurisdiction taking into consideration the documents, circumstances of the case, including for example the coronavirus situation, which resulted in the shutting down of airports, consequently affecting the implementation of the employment agreement.

EMPLOYMENT VISA

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