Three Times a Winner! HCT Humiliated!

As you can see from the picture alongside, HCT likes to make a big song and dance when a teacher leaves. The cheques being proudly held up by the students in Fujairah represent the End of Service payments happily made by HCT to sadly departing faculty members.

Well, it's something like that...

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Sometimes principles, morals and ethics take over when the lack of those prevails 

So where to start with this David against Goliath story?

I worked in the English Department at the Fujairah HCT campuses for over six years. I resigned officially on October 28th, 2019, in order to have plenty of time to arrange the big move back to Europe in July 2020. My resignation was accepted, but little did we know about Covid back then.

I went back home to Spain during the Spring break, only to find myself stuck in an international lockdown. On top of that, my brother and only family member was left dead in less than 48 hours. What followed has been a combination of struggles, blessings and resilience; yet it didn’t kill me, hence it made me stronger, and truly so.

I couldn’t get back to work because the entire world had stopped, including planes, so the totally incompetent and malicious idiots Adel Zaira, Mona Al Motairi and the campus director Abdullah Al Suwaiji proceed to bravely fire me by email for ‘disciplinary’ reasons. This move broke right there and then every possible Emirati labor law, including the Sheikh’s mandate to not fire any federal employees during Covid!

The incompetent idiots above were so used to seeing people hovering around them over fear for their jobs, they thought I would bend the knee to them: well, that did not happen.

I wrote and documented all emails to back up my case and flew back to the UAE on the first day airports were open - June 21st, 2020. I didn’t know where to go but I was certain that my case would stand in a court of law, not the Emirates Ministry of Injustice, as I was to find out through a 2.5 years journey.

HCT refused to reach an amicable agreement so that I could work to finish my contract in July 2020, and then cancelled my email without previous warning. As a result, I couldn’t communicate with anybody, and my medical insurance was stopped henceforth, so I had to pay for my own prescriptions afterwards for about six months at 140 euros each. Talk about the evil we knew! All this while still being responsible for me, as I didn’t sign my release.

In the meantime, I filed a case through the proper channels, but was advised to look for a lawyer by the court officials. Throughout, I had the honor and the tremendous luck of being emotionally supported by family, friends and a group of wonderful Emirati students and colleagues who couldn’t believe their eyes.

My case was submitted to Abu Dhabi Central Services, who to this day still cannot figure out how a small woman, a foreigner and non Muslim, managed to kick their behinds not once but three times - at the Court of First Instance, the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court, and winning them all!

HCT’s corporate HQ lawyers had been instructed to make my life as miserable as possible in order to delay the process, thus trying to break me mentally, financially and emotionally. Yet they never succeeded. However, it confirmed my suspicions that the Ministry of Justice had been strongly manipulated by the HCT offices, as soon as the judge that gave me my first win at the Court of First Instance was moved to another Emirate with lightning speed, plus they kept appealing with no new evidence, which was admitted. They even managed to convince the Supreme Court, and the last judge, to lower the amount due to me by about 100,000 dhs. All of this would have been funny if it hadn’t revealed such a clear case of corruption at so many levels!  In addition, HCT HR tried for many months to convince me to sign my settlement and release by sending horrible, pressing, bullying emails. Yet obviously, I didn’t give in.

I sent messages to various sheiks, clearly stating my case, at different intervals over a 2.5 year period. They never answered, with only the Minister of Education, an ex-chairman at HCT and another VP doing so towards the end. Their English, and especially their communication skills, left a lot to be desired, considering their positions. As a culture, the Emiratis' total lack of accountability, responsibility and management skills shone because of their absence.

Most Emiratis are interested in looking good at the family press photo or having their names on the news to show how tolerant, respectful and knowledgeable they are. That type of arrogant, bullying attitude is what most expats detest and is the main reason westerners despise them

The end result is … I’ve had a  2.5 years paid holiday, for which I was very grateful during the pandemic. But more importantly, I have clearly made my point about telling the truth, being honest and never giving up on principles.

I have no wish to go back - ever - to the Middle East, where a secretive, hypocritical, lazy, incompetent and totally ignorant culture prevails.

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So, not once, not twice, but THRICE has HCT been beaten into submission!

May this serve as an uplifting lesson to you ALL!