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UAE: Teacher told to pay former school Dh24,165 in unpaid tuition fees for sons

Abu Dhabi - Court finds teacher guilty of failing to pay tuition fees for a full year

An English language teacher in Abu Dhabi, who defaulted on paying school fees for his two children after allegedly being fired arbitrarily from his job, has been ordered to pay Dh24,165 to the school.

The Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance instructed the teacher to pay the unpaid fees to the private school where he was teaching after finding him guilty of failing to pay the tuition for a full year.

The Abu Dhabi school had filed a lawsuit against the teacher, whose sons were studying in the 5th and 11th grades in the school, demanding that he pay Dh57,150 in uncleared school fees. The school also wanted the court to order him to pay an interest of 12 per cent from the date of the claim until the full payment was made, in addition to the legal expenses.

In it’s lawsuit, the school said the teacher’s two sons attended school for the academic year 2019, but their father refused to pay the tuition fees without giving a genuine reason.

The teacher denied the school’s claims in the court, stressing that the school did not present a performance order to claim the amount in question.

He said he was working as an English teacher at the school, and that the tuition fees for his children was being deducted from his monthly salary at the rate of Dh2,250 per month.

The teacher said the school had fired him in March 2019.

He said he had previously filed a labour lawsuit against the school demanding unpaid salaries and other entitlements which amounted to Dh67,400.

The teacher stressed that he had paid the full tuition fees for one of his kids for the entire academic year, and that he was getting a full fee exemption for one of his sons.

A report by experts assigned by court to investigate the matter showed that the relationship between the school and the teacher is a contractual relationship subject to the UAE Labour Law, according to which the defendant joined the school to work as an English language teacher, with a basic salary of Dh6,000, allowances of Dh2,500 dirhams, and housing allowance of Dh3,000.

The report also said that in the case of children of teachers joining and working for schools, the policy received from the educational authorities in Abu Dhabi does not contain a provision regarding any exception for tuition fees for their kids, but rather it is for the school’s discretionary authority for teachers.

After hearing from all parties, court decided that the teacher pays Dh24,615 owed to him by the school in the school in unpaid tuition as the documents presented by the school clarified.

The court said the teacher did not provide any evidence of payment of the school fees or exemption of tuition fees from the school for one of his kids as he claimed in his defence.

ismail@khaleejtimes.com