Dubai // A company partner harassed his employee when she refused to prepare breakfast for him on weekends and threatened to fire her from her job and deport her back to her home country.
Pakistani T A, 31, told the Court of Misdemeanors on April 5 last year her boss Pakistani A A, 58, gave her work-related papers and demanded that she sign them without reading them.
“When I refused, he started calling me inappropriate names and threatened to cancel my residency and send me home back to Pakistan, then pushed me aside and ordered that I get out of the office,” she said.
She said A A used to call her on Friday mornings and request that she make him breakfast and bring it to him to the office.
“I told him no, I won’t do it, so he punished me by deducting from my salary, and yelled at me,” she said.
“He also called my family back in Pakistan and threatened them that if I don’t obey his orders, he will fire me and send me back to them.”
T A said her problems grew worse when a colleague repeatedly asked her to go out with him but she turned him down. She said he then started calling and harassing her late at night.
A witness, Pakistani S A 36, testified that he heard the defendant yelling at T A.
“He was warning her about work, that she was behind schedule, and started calling her names, then he pushed her and told her to leave the office.”
When A A was questioned at the police station, he denied the charge of verbal assault.
“I sometimes call my employees on Fridays, sometimes the business demands that the employees work on weekends,” said A A.
A A was released on bail, and his passport was seized to ensure that he doesn’t leave the country.
A verdict is expected on March 25.
salamir@thenational.ae
