Supreme Court ruling says managers can move staff at will

ABU DHABI // The Supreme Court has ruled that managers have the right to move employees whenever they see fit - even to a different job in a different institution, and even if they are not qualified to do the job.

"A management - using its discretion - has the right to relocate an employee to a new place or a new job if the decision is in the public interest and would enable the management to regulate its facility," the president and chief justice of the Federal Supreme Court, Dr Abdulwahab Abdul, wrote in a ruling yesterday.

And he added: "As a rule, a management does not have to reveal its reasons for making the decision [to dismiss an employee]."

The chief justice made the ruling in a case involving an Islamic studies teacher who, until 2009, had worked in Abu Dhabi for 13 years without being promoted.

The unidentified Emirati, along with several others, was moved to an administrative position at the Ministry of Labour.

The man sued his original employer, the Ministry of Education, saying it had moved him against his will to another ministry and to a job for which he was not qualified.

His case was rejected by the Federal Court of First Instance in February last year and by the Federal Court of Appeal last December. On appeal, the Supreme Court rejected the case but accepted the validity of his promotion demands. An appeals court then ruled that an employee has the right to demand promotion every three years.