Claim your dues within a year from ex-employer

Employees who do not claim unpaid dues within one year from the date of entitlement will stand to lose the benefits.

The legal point was clarified by a higher court in a case where an ex-employee demanded salary for the past three years.

The Dubai Court of Cassation cancelled the rulings of two lower courts that ruled the employer pay Dh717,041 in dues for the period 2006-2008.

As per the law an employee should be paid his salary on a monthly basis.

So the date of entitlement is the end of each month.
Employees should claim their dues within one year of the entitlement date, it ruled.

Abdullah Klaib, Head of Civil Prosecution, said the courts mistook the employee's last working day in the company as the date of his entitlement.

According to the law, should one year lapse following the date of entitlement, with the employee failing to ask for his/her dues, s/he stands to lose the amount.

The ex-manager of a company filed a case against his former firm asking for Dh717,041 unpaid salary from 2006 to 2008.

The Court of First Instance asked the firm to pay him the dues.

The company appealed the sentence, but the Court of Appeal rejected the appeal and upheld the sentence of the First Instance Court.

Meanwhile, the company missed its chance to appeal the sentence with the Cassation Court within the specified legal grace period, so the sentence of the Court of Appeal became final.

The company then submitted a request to the Dubai Prosecution Attorney General asking to appeal the sentence.

Civil Prosecutor Musaab Al Hosani was assigned to study the case.

He reported that the court had mistaken the date of entitlement as his last working day.

The Dubai Attorney General endorsed the appeal request and the case was referred to the Cassation Court.

The Cassation Court cancelled the sentence of the Court of Appeal and reported that the employee lost some of his dues because he failed to ask for them within one year after the date of entitlement.

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