Thursday 10 August 2017

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.


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is extraordinary!!! I doff my hat to you Suede, you have now leveled up to 'Legendary' status in the game of life. I hope you can share this magnificent victory with your core group of supporters who have been on this quest since 2010 .....

Suede Oasis said...

Me, a 'hero'? No way! The real heroes are those brave employees (and students) who have risked everything to supply Suede with their tales of mistreatment, bullying and persecution. I am, after, just the 'messenger'.

Anonymous said...

I find this suspect. What is the case number for this judgment?

Anonymous said...

The case number should be protected in order to protect the source. If you are a person in authority who mearly wants to verify the story because you want to help the country by trying to correct a UAE educational institution who has lost its way, then contact the lawyers of the case. If you are a person in authority who is concerned by this case, you should be. But you should be more concerned that this case is just the tip of an iceberg. You should be concerned that hct hr is trying to save money by stealing it from exiting employees who have earned it. And these are employees who have worked hard and loyalty for several years and in some cases decades. How do you think the actions of hct hr is effecting the international reputation of hct and do the actions of hct hr reflect well on the UAE? So, go ahead and investigate but be sure and solve the problems at hct instead of chasing hct victims.

Anonymous said...

Still smells to me like the OP is just trying to get others to sign up with a legal team who will then ask for an upfront fee to proceed. Not chasing victims, only trying to avoid creating more through a scam.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but your posting is confusing and what or who is OP? I would propose that if hct victims want to find out if they have a case for whatever complaints they have they should go for that free consultation. What I've heard about these lawyers is they already have a lot of cases and they prefer to take on cases they can win. Besides that it is the UAE government that asks for money up front. I honestly think that civil justice is only for those who can afford it leaving the low paid and those low in savings out in the cold. While lawyer fees can be negotiated and probably paid in installments, the court fees cannot. It almost seems like the government wants to punish anyone who files a civil case. Court fees for end of service civil cases start at dh 10,000 and can go up past dh 30,000 depending on the amount being sued for. Of course if you win your case HCT would have to pay you back for all those legal costs. The government ends up taking more than the lawyers eventually. There is your scam. There and in the office of pirate Zak at HCT.

Delma said...

Hmm, seems to me that some joker is trying to discredit Suede and this site.

Now, just WHO could that possibly be?!

I wonder...

Suede Oasis said...

Now tell me, just WHY would anyone want to try and discredit little ol' me?
I am determined to get it right out there, the indisputable truth about HCT!
Surely that makes me a worthy person, not some sort of lowlife reprobate, no?
Truly, Suede is deeply puzzled here...

Anonymous said...

The only thing that puzzles me is why you have lasted so long, Suede. Take it from me, there are many people at HCT who would like to see you silenced in a most primitive way. But either they are too dozy/incompetent to do anything meaningful, or they just haven't been successful yet.
That word 'yet' should leave you worried, Suede!

Anonymous said...

Ooooooh! Somebody is a little upset about the truth getting out. And a physical threat none the less. A death threat, maybe! Naughty, naughty. You are not exactly painting HCT higher ups in a good light. I know the HCT soldiers in the offices and classrooms, though not the "many" in administration, are very happy someone is sticking up for them, and sticking it to those who disrespect them with their suppressive attitudes toward them and unwise decisions. Maybe the "many" in administration should focus more on giving the soldiers less to be concerned about. How about a nice 'bottom up' evaluation system like ZU has to balance out the abused top down system. Do you shudder at the thought? I'll bet you do.

Let's have more HCT victims winning cases against HCT!

Shudder, shudder.

Anonymous said...

Maybe this IS the bottom up evaluation system. As long as there is no way to evaluate the evaluators, we will need Suede and his website. Thank you Suede.

Anonymous said...

Your email address on yahoo does not work

Suede Oasis said...

Oh yes it does!

suede.oasis@yahoo.com

Get in touch!

Anonymous said...

An update from the lawyers. I stopped in this evening to discuss my case. I’ve been told a number of HCT employees, even from ZU, have taken advantage of the free consultation and were able to return to HCT HR and get more money than they were previously offered. Free consult. More money. Not bad and these guys are happy to do it even if the consults don’t result in cases. But employees are advised to bring their contracts. So much for the claim that these lawyers just want to take advantage of HCT victims.

Another thing is employees who left under the following conditions IN THE PAST have a case that can be won:

1) Terminated without severance pay equal to their full monthly salary for three (staff) to six ( faculty) months.
2) Employees who worked out their contracts and only got paid to their last work day in June. They should have recieved full salary through their contract date, which is why HCT is now changing contracts to start and finish in July.
3) Employees who resigned and gave the required notice period and were then charged a penalty because they did not resign at the end of a semester.
4) Employees who Declined to sign the new contract and were terminated.
5) Employees who were not offered a new contract and were not officially notified of their non renewal must be renewed or given severance.
6) Employees who were officially offered a job and had the offer withdrawn.

IF HCT TELLS YOU TO SIGN THE NEW CONTRACT OR RESIGN, OR THAT A REFUSAL IS EQUAL TO RESIGNATION, DONT RESIGN. DON’T RESIGN. THEY HAVE TO TERMINATE YOU OR EXTEND YOUR CONTRACT AS IS.

Another thing is that if an employee does not want to sign the new contract, they don’t have to no matter what HR tells them. If they tell you to sign it or resign, don’t resign. If they terminate you you must get a complete severance package. For example, a teacher who refuses to sign the new contract in June or May, or any other month, and is terminated, they must receive full six months severance from the date they receive official notice of termination or non renewal of contract. If an employee refuses to sign the new contract and HCT chooses to renew that person’s contract, it must be under the old contractual terms and not the new ones.

You may be asking yourselves, why HCT HR has a different story, the answer is they don’t know about the law and don’t care. It’s not that they are right.

Keep that in mind when HR tells you anything; they could be completely wrong and not even know it.

Go gettem. Don’t lay down and take it up the .......



Anonymous said...

My contract was not renewed and I was only notified end of April that my contract is not renewed and there was no reason given. Should I have received full 6 months salary as they should've informed me in January? My contract end date was 31st July and that is till when I was given EOS.

I've now left UAE and intend to take up legal action if the 6 months notice is applicable in my case. Kindly advise.