Work beyond 8 hours is overtime

I have a factory here. If the factory is closed due to technical problems and the workers are given time off, can the off hours (eight hours) be deducted from their monthly overtime? Can we make them work on Friday without giving overtime?

Deduction from employees is heavily regulated by the UAE Labour Law, therefore, no employer is allowed to deduct any amount from the salary of any employee. The employer is only allowed to deduct from the salary of an employee in case of disciplinary action against him. However, this deduction should come after the employee has warned him, as per Article 103. Furthermore, Article 104 of the labour Law states:

“A fine may be a certain amount of money or an amount equal to the remuneration of the employee for a certain period of time. A fine in respect of a single offence may not exceed remuneration payable for five days. It is not permissible to deduct within one month an amount equal to more than five days pay from the employee’s remuneration in settlement of fines imposed upon him.”

The law also provides three conditions for imposing fines and deducting the same from employees: first, a special register shall be maintained from this purpose where all the relevant detail of the fines and its deduction shall be entered. Second, a special account shall be maintained where such fines be kept, and lastly, such deduction shall be used for the social welfare in accordance with the decision to be taken by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs as per Article 105.

In other words, you cannot deduct any amount from the salaries of your employees in the event of breakdown of machinery especially when the workers were available to work. The basic duty of any employee is to make himself available to the employer to work in the timings mentioned in the employment contract and it is the duty of the employer to provide him work.

Furthermore, working hours are regulated by the law, therefore, any work carried beyond the normal working hours per day or working on Friday is considered overtime by law. It is worth noting that overtime is based on daily work basis not on a monthly basis. In other words, if any employee has completed his daily eight hours work, then, he has to be paid an over time for any extra work performed thereafter regardless of his monthly or weekly working hours.

Article 65 of the UAE Labour Law states: “The maximum normal working hours for adult employees shall be eight hours per day or 48 hours per week. However, working hours for the employees of commercial establishments, hotels, restaurants, watchmen and similar operations may be increased to nine hours per day as determined by the Minister of Labour. Likewise, working hours per day in respect of hazardous work or work detrimental to health, may be decreased by decision of the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. During the month of Ramadan, normal working hours shall be reduced by two hours. Time spent by the employee in transport form his residence to the place of work shall not be included in the working hours.”

As per the above mentioned Article, an employee has to work for eight hours per day or a maximum of 48 hours in a week. It is worth to note that 48 hours in any week is the maximum number of hours for a worker to work. Thus, his daily work must not be increased more than eight hours per day. Therefore, 48 should not be divided upon the whole week or the worker should not be asked to complete 48 hours in a particular week, because any work carried out beyond eight hours per day will be considered as overtime as Article 76 of the Labour Law which states:

“If circumstances of work necessitate that an employee works more than the normal working hours, the extra time shall be considered overtime, for which the employee shall receive a remuneration equal to that corresponding to his normal working hours plus an extra of at least 25 percent of such remuneration.”

Friday is an official holiday in the UAE, therefore, the employer is to grant one day off or pay the employee overtime for the work undertaken on Friday. Furthermore, it is worth noting that just undertaking work on a Friday is considered overtime regardless whether the worker has completed his weekly or monthly hours or not. In this regard, Article 70 of the UAE Labour Law states that:

“Friday is the normal weekly holiday for all employees except for those on daily wage bases. If the employee is required to work on Friday he shall be granted one day off for rest or be paid the basic pay for normal working hours plus 50 per cent increase at least of such pay.”

Therefore, if your employees undertake any kind of work on Friday, such work will be considered as overtime, and you have to pay them “the basic pay for normal working hours plus 50 per cent in compliance with Article 70 of the UAE Law.

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30 days overstay

My company has cancelled my labour contract, but the immigration cancellation has not been done since my family was outside the UAE and I just cancelled the dependents’ visas. Can I stay for 30 days once the immigration cancellation is done? Or, did my overstay period of 30 days start after labour contract cancellation?

Thirty days’ duration does not have any link with the labour contract, rather it starts from the date of cancellation of your visa. Therefore, once, your visa is cancelled, the countdown of 30 days will start.

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Mushtaq Ahmad Janis a lawyer at the Global Advocates and Legal Consultants, with a Master’s Degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Hull, Kingston-upon-Hull, England. Readers may e-mail their questions to: news@khaleejtimes.com or send them to Legal View, Khaleej Times, PO Box 11243, Dubai.

Compiled by Ahmed Shaaban