Abu Dhabi, August 25: Workers, who have been denied end-of-service dues, gratuity and other benefits by their companies as per the labour laws, can file complaints against even after signing the acknowledgement of such entitlements, an official from the Ministry of Labour (MoL) said.
Talking to Khaleej Times at the weekly ‘Open Day’ on Monday, Humaid bin Deemas, acting director-general in the MoL, said, “Such victims still can approach the court or the ministry to claim their benefits.”
The ministry has witnessed a number of cases in which companies push labourers to sign some documents if they intend to receive entitlements when leaving the company. They promise to give the end-of-service benefits, butlater decline to carry out the promise, Bin Deemas explained.
He said that the owners/sponsors think that once the worker has signed the papers, they could do nothing. But now they can lodge a complaint with the court and MoL.
“If a person files any such complaint with the court, the courts do not depend only on the documents produced before it. It gives both the right to pursue their cases with evidence,” he said.
“I personally found many cases in the court like this, and the decision always turned out in favour of workers,” Bin Deemas said.
Khaleej Times has come across many cases in which people were denied their end-of-service entitlements and air ticket, and their passports were held back with the promise that it would be handed over at the airport at the time of departure from the country.
When asked about such cases, Bin Deemas said, “They should come to our office and file a complaint. We would look into the matter.”
A person (name withheld), who approached the ministry, had worked with a company from 1995 to 2008 and was asked to sign some papers if he wanted to get a visa transfer from the company as the owner wanted to close the company.
The complainant told the ministry, “When I asked the company to transfer the sponsorship, it agreed on a condition that it would not give me end-of-service entitlements. I agreed to settle for the time being and got my visa transferred to another sponsor.”
He then approached the ministry to claim his end-of-service benefits. Bin Deemas suggested he go to the ministry’s office in Mussafah. Then, the sponsor was asked to come to the MoL office to settle the dispute. The company supervisor told the ministry that the complainant had received all his entitlements and he had signed a paper to that effect.
The ministry referred the case to court because the matter could not be settled amicably at the MoL, Bin Deemas said.
–Agencies