What to do When: UAE employer withdraws job offer

You’ve had a successful interview and have finally received the letter of offer that you so desperately wanted. With the letter in hand, you’ve already approached your current boss and handed him your resignation letter and are now on what we officially call ‘the notice period’.

What if you were, god forbid, to get a call from your potential employer telling you they’re no longer able to offer that job to you? What do you do in such a case? You are on your exit path from your current job and now the new job that had been promised to you has been withdrawn.

With large organisations and sophisticated HR departments, it’s unlikely that this issue will arise too often, but it does happen and there are candidates who have their sad tales to share.

“I was offered a job in a company based in Media City,” said a Dubai resident on condition of anonymity. “They gave me a letter of offer, which was signed by both the parties but they backtracked later. I’d already tendered my resignation letter to my boss. Later, I had to go back to him, apologise and begged them to retain me. They did keep me in the company but I had to forgo both my promotion and bonus for the year,” she added.

Such cases are rare but if you are caught in such a situation, this is what employment lawyers have to say.

First and foremost, you have to look at the circumstance under which the letter was withdrawn.

According to Sara Khoja, Partner at Clyde & Co, in the UAE, “an employment offer can be made conditional. For example, if the employer was not able to obtain work and residency authorisation for the employee to ensure that the employee could be lawfully employed. If the authorisations are not obtained for whatever reason, then the employment offer can be withdrawn. Or, the employee is required to have specific qualifications, failing which the offer can be withdrawn.”

If such is the case, you really don’t have a strong reason to challenge the potential employer.

However, “in certain circumstances, if an employment offer has been withdrawn but the employee has relied on it and suffered a loss, e.g., resigned an existing job to take up the employment offer which is then withdrawn, it may be possible for the employee to claim compensation,” explains Khoja, who specialises in employment law in the country.

“However, he or she would have to show [prove] that he’s suffered loss as a result of the offer being withdrawn prior to the employment even commencing and that the withdrawal was not due to the employee,” she notes.

Recruitment experts in the country believe such cases are rare and few but to say it doesn’t happen will be wrong.

“This is not a common occurrence.  However, I have heard of cases like this in the past,” says Caroline Gentles, Senior Consultant at Cobalt HR Consultancy.

“Withdrawing an offer to a candidate is relatively rare in the UAE, but does happen. There are, however, some companies that have to take such a step due to their financial situation or changes in management resulting in a hiring freeze,” says A Athawale, a recruitment expert with extensive experience in the UAE.

“One of the things you can do is talk to the company for the reasons. It may be a hiring freeze or a push back to the start date. The other is talk to your former employer to check if you can go back. This is one of the reasons why you shouldn’t burn bridges with the company you’re planning to leave,” he says.

“The candidate can also contact the Ministry of Labour or Government Services in the Free Zone to see if there is any recourse. They are the authority to best guide you,” he advises.

“Depending on your skills, take this opportunity to also look at other companies that you were interviewed at during the course of your job search. A good tip is to never reject another opportunity until you have started on the first one,” he further adds.
 

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