A senior judge has warned companies that fail to pay workers on time that they will have their assets frozen.
The message comes after the government said on Monday that employers must pay staff on time and in full.
A new legal provision allows courts to freeze the bank accounts and assets of companies in cases involving unpaid wages of more than 100 workers.
Dubai Courts has been enforcing the law with significant success.
“The move ensures that the property and funds of a company being pursued are frozen,” Chief Justice Jamal Al Jaberi, head of the Labour Court at Dubai Courts, told The National.
Once the Labour Court issues a verdict, the company’s assets may be auctioned off to settle the amount due to workers.
“When the [Covid-19] outbreak first happened, cases involving a large number of labourers increased while the number of individual cases fell,” Mr Al Jaberi said.
“The implementation of the provision and the efforts of all relevant departments led to an overall decline in the number of labour cases last year.”
He said these departments include Dubai Courts, the Permanent Committee of Labour Affairs in Dubai, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, and the General Department of Human Rights at Dubai Police, among others.
In the last quarter of 2021, a large group of workers filed a case seeking unpaid salaries after the owner of their company fled the country.
“We immediately ordered a freezing of the company’s funds with help from the execution court,” Mr Al Jaberi said.
Before the provision came into force, owners could sell their company’s assets while a court case was continuing, the judge said. There were occasions when no funds could be found to pay the workers’ dues once the court issued a verdict, he said.
The new law helps to avoid such situations.
After a ruling from the court in favour of the workers in the 2021 case, the court ordered that the company’s assets be auctioned to pay the workers' dues and enable them to return to their countries of origin.
The senior judge said that, in general, more than 90 per cent of labour cases are about unpaid wages.
He urged employers to adhere to laws and ministerial decisions. This, he said, would help prevent companies facing financial problems from landing in court over claims of unpaid wages.
“Flouting employment contracts conditions, particularly on salaries, is the main reason behind labour cases being filed,” he said.
“I urge companies to pay salaries on time and in the case they are facing financial difficulties, there are ways to help them avoid developing these difficulties into court cases.”
He said laws and government decisions allow changes to contracts based on mutual consent.
“They can agree to a change of wage with the employee but must document that because a court of law will only consider documents.”
On Monday, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation urged private companies to pay wages on time using the Wage Protection System.
All companies and businesses registered with the ministry must sign up with the WPS and those that fail to will be blocked from all new work permits until salaries are fully paid.
Maher Al Obed, assistant undersecretary at the ministry, said any change in salaries should be done through the approved system.
He said employers can also use the 'statement of account' service for salary transfers, which is emailed every month.
During the first six months of last year, Dubai Labour Court dealt with 6,407 labour cases.
In 2020, it heard 14,703 cases, down from 15,311 the year before.
UAE salary guide 2022 - in pictures
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
6 UNDERGROUND
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco
2.5 / 5 stars
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
MATCH INFO
Tottenham 4 (Alli 51', Kane 50', 77'. Aurier 73')
Olympiakos 2 (El-Arabi 06', Semedo')
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
The Ashes
Results
First Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets
Second Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs
Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
Fourth Test: Melbourne: Drawn
Fifth Test: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
Pots for the Asian Qualifiers
Pot 1: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China
Pot 2: Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Jordan
Pot 3: Palestine, India, Bahrain, Thailand, Tajikistan, North Korea, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Pot 4: Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Yemen, Afghanistan, Maldives, Kuwait, Malaysia
Pot 5: Indonesia, Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Macau/Sri Lanka
Semi-final fixtures
Portugal v Chile, 7pm, today
Germany v Mexico, 7pm, tomorrow
Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
