Good News with Plenty of Appeal!

Regarding the previous communication from Agent X, I recently chased him for an update on a recent case he made Suede aware of.  The object of the case in question was a teacher ripped off by Pirate Zak and his cohort in crime, the infamous Taleb Obaid - the duo who broke UAE federal law by illegally declaring him absconding just for refusing their low-ball EOS settlement. Our intrepid hero answered my request to spill the beans, and this is the result. The news is … very good indeed!

Hi Suede,

Regarding my EOS case, I have won the following from the Federal Appeals Court: (1) six months severance compensation at full salary including benefits; (2) the same for all vacation days included in that time period; (3) an interest penalty of more than 10 percent of the amount awarded to me by the court, calculated on an annual basis for the time they delay paying me starting retroactively from the date the case was filed (to date that amounts to more than Dh54,000 and HCT has not gotten around to releasing the money to the court yet); (4) my end of service must be calculated according to my full salary with benefits and not the basic; (5) even though my last day of work was June 25, I must be paid my full salary and benefits through to my contract anniversary of August 31. The court has thus awarded me Dh450,000, not including interest penalties, whereas HCT wanted me to initially accept Dh177,000. 

Because my case was decided by the Appeals Court, a precedent for HCT employees has been set. This means that my lawyers only need to file any new cases and refer to that decision in order to get the same result.

Moreover, according to an earlier court decision, HCT will have to pay all of my legal fees and court costs because I won the case – this includes translation charges and the like.  For current and previous HCT employees, this means that even though they will have to pay legal fees and court costs initially, they will get it all back. 

Teachers terminated for not accepting the new contract terms must receive six months severance pay at full salary, in addition to end of service benefits. The same goes for those who were terminated before the end of their contracts.

It should be noted here that, since staff positions only need to give three months notice when they resign, what is said about teachers for six months must be halved for staff. 

HCT victims who have already been away from the college for two to three years can also file a case, even if they are outside the UAE. 

This is enough to chew on for now. Your readers should still contact you for the lawyer contact info, and Dr. Hassan is still the best initial contact.

Since there are HCT employees all around the country, many would have difficulty meeting the Abu Dhabi legal team, so they should form a group and try to arrange with the lawyers to meet with them closer to home. Perhaps it would be wise to offer the lawyers some money for the extra effort.