Expats Now Sueing Their Dubai Employers Citing Verbal Abuse

After suffering verbal abuse from their employers, expatriates in

are now suing bosses and winning.

Although verbal abuse in the workplace isn’t a new thing in Dubai, taking the offenders to court and being awarded substantial sums for psychological damage is now the way to counter the syndrome. Although many cases brought simply included the words ‘stupid’ and ‘silly’, a criminal offence in Dubai, one employee has been awarded a total of Dh200,000 for psychological damage, an accusation which must be substantiated by actual proof. One Dubai lawyer specialising in such cases told local media the number of such cases is now increasing as the word gets round.

She described one case in which her office had filed a criminal charge against an employer who’d verbally abused a female employee, during which the offender had been banned from travelling. The boss was fined Dh50,000 for the continual usage of ‘stupid’ and ‘silly’ towards the employee after the lawyer had emailed the company’s human resources official and an investigation had taken place. In the case of the verbal abuse victim whose boss had been fined Dh200,000, a psychiatrist’s evidence proving the effect of the continual abuse was presented in court.

The law against verbal abuse in the workplace states punishments including jail time not exceeding six months or fines no larger than Dh5,000 in the case of abuse or slander by means of telephone or face to face with a third party witness. Employees who’ve been victims of verbal abuse are able to leave the company without giving notice, and complaints may be filed via the Ministry of Human Resources after legal advice has been taken. The law applies equally to expats as well as to Emirati employees.