The Importance of Employment Contracts

Analysis

As 2016 draws to a close, HR practitioners may be contemplating their "New Year To Do List". The start of the year is a good time to look at company contracts and policies and consider whether these need updating. Whilst many employers in the UAE will be required to issue standard form contracts (either those by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization, or by a free zone authority), it remains common for companies to also require their staff to sign company-issued contracts. In this article we set out five key areas which employers in the UAE may wish to address in their company contracts to supplement any standard-form contract.

• Duties, Obligations and Standards of Conduct and Performance

It is significantly harder to deal with conduct or performance issues if the employee can legitimately argue that they were never informed what was expected of them. In particular, in the event of a dispute, the UAE courts will take into account written terms. Employers are therefore encouraged to expressly set out an employee's duties and obligations in the contract in full.