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Abu Dhabi firm, owner fined Dh500,000 for not paying salaries

Abu Dhabi - Both the firm and the prosecutors challenged the verdict.

A service firm in Abu Dhabi and its owner have been fined Dh500,000 for not paying wages of 643 workers. 
The Abu Dhabi Cassation Court upheld an earlier ruling by the Appellate Court which ordered the firm and its owner to jointly pay the fine after they were found guilty of non-payment of salaries.
Official court documents stated that the workers, mostly Asian nationals, had filed a complaint against their company after it delayed paying their salaries.
Prosecutors had charged the firm and its owner with failure to pay salaries to the workers, which is against the country's labour law.
The Abu Dhabi Misdemeanour Court had earlier cleared the firm's owner, who had been tried in absentia, of the charge and convicted the firm. The court also fined the firm Dh5 million but it was reduced to Dh500,000 in a different ruling.
Both the firm and the prosecutors challenged the verdict. The appeals court cancelled the ruling that acquitted the firm owner. The firm and its owner were ordered to jointly pay a Dh500,000 fine.
The employer then went to Abu Dhabi's top court stressing that he and his firm were wrongly convicted because they had cleared the wages of all the workers.
The judge, however, rejected the appeal stressing that employer and his firm had to be penalised.
ismail@khaleejtimes.com