"Dubai judge says Labour Court will freeze employers' assets for failure to pay wages", 11 Jan 2022

A new legal provision allows courts to freeze the bank accounts and assets of companies in cases involving unpaid wages of more than 100 workers. Dubai Courts has been enforcing the law with significant success.

...Once the Labour Court issues a verdict, the company’s assets may be auctioned off to settle the amount due to workers. ..."Before the provision came into force, owners could sell their company’s assets while a court case was continuing, the judge said. There were occasions when no funds could be found to pay the workers’ dues once the court issued a verdict..." [Chief Justice Jamal Al Jaberi, head of the Labour Court at Dubai Courts said].

...After a ruling from the court in favour of the workers in [a] 2021 case, the court ordered that the company’s assets be auctioned to pay the workers' dues and enable them to return to their countries of origin. The senior judge said that, in general, more than 90 per cent of labour cases are about unpaid wages....

On Monday, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation urged private companies to pay wages on time using the Wage Protection System. All companies and businesses registered with the ministry must sign up with the WPS and those that fail to will be blocked from all new work permits until salaries are fully paid...