UAE Employment Laws: Ensuring a Safe and Respectful Workplace Environment
In the United Arab Emirates, it is the employer’s responsibility to give workers a secure and suitable workplace. This is in compliance with Employment Law’s Article 13(13), which stipulates, “The Employer Shall provide a safe and appropriate working environment.”
Also prohibited in the UAE is verbal, physical, and sexual harassment of another person. Both the Employment Law’s Article 14(2) and the UAE Penal Law’s Article 413 are in agreement with this.
The legislation specifies that it is forbidden for an employer, management, or other workers to engage in sexual harassment, bullying, or any other form of verbal, physical, or mental abuse toward an employee.
According to Article 413 of the UAE Penal Law, “Any person who commits a sexual harassment crime, shall be liable to a jail sentence for a period of not less than one (1) year and a fine not less than Dh10,000 or either one of these two penalties.”
A further provision of the legislation reads that “Shall be considered sexual harassment any persistent behavior to annoy the victim by actions, words, or signs, against decency, done repeatedly so as to induce him to respond to his own sexual desires or the sexual desires of others.”
An employee has a duty to conduct himself or herself professionally in the workplace. According to Employment Law’s Article 16(2), “The Employee shall Display Good Behaviour and Conduct and Observe Professional Honesty and Integrity,” this is in conformity with the law.
You may directly advise him to stop approaching you based on the aforementioned legal restrictions and the gravity of his wrong behavior, which is illegal in the UAE in accordance with UAE Penal Law.
You can register a complaint with your company about your male coworker and ask them to warn him by sending him a warning letter or a letter asking him to explain his actions if he continues to act in an improper manner around you. A warning, a show-cause letter, and an internal inquiry of the aforementioned male colleague’s inappropriate behavior toward you may be the first disciplinary measures your company takes in response to your complaint. The aforementioned inquiry must be documented in writing. This is in line with Article 24 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 and Article 39 of the Employment Law, as read together.
After then, if the investigation’s findings showed that your male coworker had acted improperly toward you, his job may be terminated by his company without giving him a chance to provide notice. This is in conformity with Article 44.7 of the Employment Law.
If your male coworker persists in acting improperly around you despite warnings from you and your employer, you could also think about making a criminal complaint to the Dubai Police. This is in accordance with Article 411, Article 412(1), and the aforementioned Article 413 of the UAE Penal Law.