Hi,
I have an ongoing dispute with my ex-employer with whom i worked for little over 6 months.
I joined this company which is into serving diplomatic missions and is into immigration services in November 2012 for a position of Senior Manager for their Office in Dubai. I joined this company on the basis of offer letter and since my employment was for their Dubai office i was suppossed to get my appointment letter after joining them in Dubai. Until Feb 1st i was still in Delhi and was working on my project which was started by me and the work i was to take care from Dubai. I finally went to Dubai on 3rd Feb, 2013 and joined the office from the very next day. I was initially booked in a hotel till the time i have my own accommodation where i shifted on 26th of Feb. My company paid the advance rental for the 1st quarter for the accommodation to me and the amount was being deducted from my salary and my colleague's salary who was suppossed to share the apartment with me in Dubai. This colleague of mine did not even landed in Dubai till now inspite of having his visa from Feb, 2013 but the installement of advance rent was still getting deducted from his salary as well.
However there was a change in management in my organisation and the new head wanted me to relocate back to Delhi ASAP but i made it clear to him that i can do that if the expenses i had made in Dubai for my accommodation are taken care by the management for which he agreed. This was on the basis of my conversation with the Sr. VP of my company in d begning of April, 2013. I then forwarded him an excel sheet of the expenses made by me and my colleague and requested him to pay my share to me so that i settle things in Dubai before relocating back to Delhi. But untill mid of May,2013 no action was taken by the HR, Finance and the management inspite of my regular email communication with them (i have all the emails). The 1st quarter of my tenency contract was ending on 25th of May, 2013 and i had no information on the amount that was required to be given to the real estate company that owns the building where i was living. Below are the expense i paid and was supposed to pay for my accommodation for your ref:
Security Paid: AED 2750/2 (shared by self & colleague)
Broker's fee: AED 3500/2 (shared by self & colleague)
Electricity & water security: AED 1110/2 (shared by self & colleague)
Penantly amount for cancelling the contract: AED 9167 (paid was self as the contract was in my name)
As per Dubai Law, if you cancel the contract before the tenure than you are required pay two months' rent as penanlty. And if the same is not paid and the chq of 2nd quarter's rent goes for clearence and bounces than there is a legal case on your name and you are taken in police custody immediately. I had 2 completely sleepless nights due to this fear and was given the chq of penalty amount on the very last day on 25th of May, 2013 on a condition that 50% of this will be recovered from my salary in 3-4 installements. Since i needed to settle this thing out on priority i accepted the chq without agreeing to this condition and sent an email to Sr. VP raising my concern over this condition and never got a response from his end. on 25th itself i paid the penalty to the Real estate company and tool the clearence from them and came back to India on the words of my Sr. VP that rest will be settled while i join them in Delhi. I came to Delhi on 29th of May, 2013 after getting my employment visa cancelled and by giving all the handovers properly. and joined office on 30th. Since then i followed this with the mangement on daily basis but never got any fruitful response (I have thoese emails) and was verbally assured my the SR. VP and HR that it will be settled soon. But to my surpirse the amount of AED 2292 (25% of the total amount of penalty) was deducted from my salary. I was never given any explaination on this and was again told by HR to wait for some time as the management was on a business tour to USA. This situation was really too much for to handle and i decided to leave that job with immediate effect. During my tenure i was never given any appointment letter as Delhi office kept telling me that i will get in Dubai and Dubai office kept telling me that it should've been given in Delhi itself since its our HO. Since i did not have my appointment letter i was not required to serve any notice period and sent my resignation through email stating that today is my last working day in the organization. I also asked the HR to update me on the handover fomalities but never got any response from them. During the last 1 month i got couple of calls from HR to handover the official laptop that is still with me and i told the HR MGR to revert on my EMail as it was quite possible by them to take the laptop and still not give me a clearance and i wanted to have everything on Email.
Now today i have recieved a letter from employer threatning me to take up the matter legally since i owe them AED 6875 and it is consider as theft since i am absconded and a FIR will be filied against me if i dont pay them this amount.
I seek your legal advice on this matter urgently as this becoming a pain and really troublesome for me now.
I was sent to Dubai by my organization and it was purely their idea of calling me back to Delhi hence it is ideally their responsibility to settle the expenses that i made for my relocation to Dubai from Delhi.
Request you to kindly advice please.
Looking forward for a quick response.
Thanks
Ankur Sahu
