Court ruling confirms formal termination required to stop salary

The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation has ordered a company to pay an employee Dh875,761 in unpaid wages and other benefits after finding that her employment had not been formally terminated despite the company stopping salary payments.

The ruling by the highest judicial authority in Abu Dhabi came after a lengthy court battle. The case first went to the Court of First Instance, then the Appeal court, and finally to the Cassation.

The employee filed a labour case in 2025 claiming that her employer stopped paying her a monthly salary of $26,666 (about Dh97,866) from April 2025 without formally ending her employment. She demanded unpaid salaries, leave pay, notice compensation, end-of-service gratuity, contractual bonuses, stock-related benefits, and compensation for alleged wrongful termination during probation.

A lower court initially awarded her Dh18,350 compensation for the notice period and a return air ticket while rejecting the rest of her claims. The employee appealed the ruling, eventually taking the dispute to a higher court. There, the court quashed the earlier judgment and ordered a court-appointed expert to review the case.

The employee argued that the company had never issued a formal termination notice and that the employment relationship remained legally valid. She testified that she continued working after the company stopped paying her salary and was unable to move to another employer due to her employment status and the lack of termination papers.

The court-appointed expert found no document, letter or email showing that the company had informed the employee that her services had been terminated.

The expert also found that the employee's repeated attempts to contact the company by phone, email, and through a newspaper notice were unsuccessful. Based on the documents available, the expert concluded that the employee continued working until she filed her lawsuit on November 25, 2025.