ABU DHABI // An employer fined Dh5 million for not paying his workers has had the amount reduced to Dh50,000.
The first instance court found A, an Emirati, guilty of withholding the wages of 681 employees and sentenced him to pay the wages, which amounted to Dh5m and fined him the same amount.
He appealed the verdict, claiming that he had paid the workers, but that the salaries were delayed.
In September his defence lawyer walked into the Appeals Court with a trolley carrying 190,000 documents which she said would prove the employer had paid the workers. The judge laughed and postponed the case to give an expert time to sift through the documents.
The expert found that the employer had paid Dh4,950,000 in wages, but withheld Dh50,000, so the Appeals Court fined him Dh50,000 and ordered him to pay the same amount in wages.
hdajani@thenational.ae
