EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT FOR DIFC EMPLOYEES

This Executive Employment Contract contains a number of special clauses that cover standard employment terms such as starting date of employment, compensation, work hours, and job title. It also contains advanced terms confidentiality undertaking, non-solicitation agreement of customers and non-solicitation of employees.

This Executive Employment Contract contains the following clauses:

-        Title

-        Term and Date of Commencement

-        Probationary Period

-        Duties

-        Rules, Policies & Procedures

-        Hours of Work

-        Place of Work

-        Salary & Benefits

-        Sick Leave

-        Other Leave

-        Confidentiality

-        Intellectual Property

-        Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures

-        Termination of Employment

-      Post Termination Obligations and Restrictions

-        Entire Agreement

-        Governing Law and Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

This contract is intended for use in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

It is important to note that certain authorities make it mandatory to use their own employment contract template and that includes the ministry of labour.

The main law that regulates the employment relationship in the UAE is Law No. 8 of 1980 Regulating Labour Relations, as amended by Federal Laws No. 24 of 1981, No. 15 of 1985, No. 12 of 1986, No. 8 of 2007 and No. 6 of 2019 (Labour Law), and the applicable ministerial orders implementing these provisions.

This applies to all employees (including foreign nationals) working in the UAE, apart from the following categories of workers:

• Officials, employees and workers in federal and local government departments.
• Members of the armed forces, police and security officers.
• Domestic servants working in private residences.
• Workers employed in agriculture (apart from employees of agricultural companies engaged in processing products or operating or repairing machinery required for agriculture).
• Employees working for a company with a place of business in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). These employees are subject to the DIFC Employment Law No. 2 of 2019.
• Employees working for a company with a place of business in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). These employees are subject to the ADGM Employment Regulations 2019.

Employees (including foreign nationals) working in one of the many free zones in the UAE (with the exception of those working in the DIFC and ADGM) are subject to the Labour Law and the employment regulations introduced in the relevant free zone. If the free zone regulations are inconsistent with the Labour Law, the Labour Law provisions take precedence. However, this does not apply if the Labour Law is less favourable than the relevant free zone regulations.

The parties can choose the governing law that applies to their contract. However, in practice, during litigation, the UAE courts generally assume jurisdiction as long as the employees are not employed by entities in the DIFC or ADGM (where the applicable courts in the DIFC or ADGM assume jurisdiction).

Before Execution

- The information on this front page or contained in the headers and footers of this instrument are for guidance purposes only.

- Please delete this front page together with the information contained in the headers, footers and endnotes prior to circulating this letter. Where square brackets […] and highlights are used in the document, it indicates that there is missing or incomplete information which will need to be incorporated prior to signature.

- Please remove the square brackets and all highlighting prior to signature.