Against the background of the current economic downturn, Alex McGeoch looks at staff re-structuring and redundancy from the perspective of UAE employment law.

In brief:

• In the current economic climate, many employers are likely to be faced with the challenge of reducing operating costs and inevitably redundancies will be on the agenda.

• The UAE Labour Law governs redundancies in the UAE. In the DIFC, separate provisions exist.

• Employers should be careful when making employees redundant to avoid having to pay damages to employees "arbitrarily".