ABU DHABI // Hundreds of Abu Dhabi Education Council teachers will receive their flight allowances after a two-week delay that resulted in disruptions to travel plans and caused some staff to go into debt.
Teachers were scheduled to receive their allowance for flights home with their June pay cheques but, as of Monday, none had. Many resorted to social media to vent their frustrations about the lack of communication from the council.
Dr Khaled Al Abri, manager of recruitment and staffing section at Adec, on Monday said: “The relevant department pays annual travel ticket allowances to employees and their dependents, but this is a time-consuming process as the department has to check resignations and end-of-term benefits before deciding and approving the numbers of employees that are eligible to receive travel ticket allowances.”
He said employees would receive allowances either on Monday or Tuesday.
While the news came as a relief to many, others remained unhappy.
“Don’t they know that flight allowances have to be paid,” a teacher asked. “Why not hire more people to do the job if they can’t finish it on time?”
Another teacher said: “We are held accountable for every minute of work we miss. Who will hold the council accountable for not giving our flight allowance on time as per our contract?”
The teacher argued that she should be compensated.
“Since they have wasted two weeks from my vacation then they should not make me start on [August] 24 and give us these two weeks.”
The academic year is scheduled to start on August 24 and end on July 10. Teachers receive flight allowances with their June salaries, but this year they received a note on June 25 from the council warning them the payment would be late.
“Dear colleagues, please be advised that the annual airfare allowance will not be part of the June salary. A separate payroll run will be done after payday. We thank you for your continual patience and support,” the note said.
“The biggest issue for the teachers is that summer vacation is already shortened, and by the delay in their flight allowance they cannot get the necessary vacation to reboot,” another teacher said.
As this has happened during Ramadan, some have found this behaviour to be un-Islamic. “In this, the holy month of Ramadan, how is one of the most prominent government divisions allowed to default on thousands of contracts with blatant impunity?” a teacher said before hearing the latest news. “Every day that passes is one less day that people have with their families, in their country. In the end, I expect Adec may pay the travel allowance, in their time without the least bit of concern for the delay’s effect on people.”
The hardest part, many teachers said, is that they love and respect their adopted country.
“We love the UAE and love our jobs here, but fair is fair. On one hand, there is this life and this community we care so very much about. On the other hand, the same people that have ‘invited’ us to this country are now failing us. This is a hurtful experience.”
The delay in flight allowances was not a one-off event, teachers said.
One said on social media that he did not receive his flight allowance last year until December.
“Last year there were some issues with not enough to cover flights or some people not getting enough for their family like promised,” a group of teachers said via email.
They blamed the council for being disorganised.
Upon hearing the news that Adec had said it would pay teachers presently, one teacher could not contain his excitement.
“I’m going home tonight. See you in August, UAE.”
salnuwais@thenational.ae
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Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales
Najlaa Khoury, Archipelago Books
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
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.”
Adele: The Stories Behind The Songs
Caroline Sullivan
Carlton Books
Company Profile
Company name: Namara
Started: June 2022
Founder: Mohammed Alnamara
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Current number of staff: 16
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Family offices