The former chief executive of Nakheel yesterday won more than US$3 million (Dh11m) from the Dubai developer in one of the biggest pay rows to have been heard in the emirate's courts.
Chris O'Donnell, the Australian property executive who was earning Dh400,000 a month at Nakheel, left the company last June after 5 years at the helm.
But he claimed he was still owed millions of dollars in end-of-service entitlements in a high-profile case filed with the Dubai World Tribunal. Yesterday the tribunal agreed. Mr O'Donnell did not appear in court to hear Judge Sir Anthony Evans award him $3m in addition to more than $250,000 in other costs.
In an unusually strongly worded statement, Nakheel lawyers criticised the decision and said the case should have been heard before the Ministry of Labour.
"Our client is understandably disappointed by today's outcome. The Dubai World Tribunal is a court of Dubai. Its judges, like their colleagues sitting by the Dubai Creek, must administer UAE law as applied in Dubai, respecting the roles of the federal institutions, such as the Ministry of Labour, as allocated by the federal laws of the union," said Matthew Showler, a lawyer for legal firm SJ Berwin.
Earlier Nakheel said that it would respect the court ruling but that it believed it had a strong case.
The case brought by Mr O'Donnell is one of several claims being brought against Nakheel in a specially created tribunal to handle disputes involving Dubai World, the conglomerate and former parent company of Nakheel. The developer was separated from Dubai World last year following the completion of $24.9 billion debt restructuring.
The collapse of property prices in late 2008 forced the developer to cancel or delay thousands of planned apartments and led to the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Mr O'Donnell said yesterday he was pleased to have had the dispute resolved.
