Fichte and Co, the UAE’s leading law firm concluded its first seminar highlighting changes made to the UAE legislation as part of the country’s 50^th anniversary. The free hybrid – online and in-person – event provided businesses with an overview of all major amendments to the UAE’s legislation, which requires additional compliance from businesses.

The breakfast seminar took place at the Pullman Dubai Downtown with sessions on the ‘Overview of major changes to the legislation’ and ‘Commercial companies law’ lead by Dr Laura Voda, Of Counsel, Fichte &Co, and a third session on ‘Bounced cheques decriminalization’ by Shehab Mamdouh, Senior Associate, Fichte &Co. The sessions were followed by a panel discussion on the new labour law moderated by Hussain Hadi, Head of Middle East Publishing, Lexis Nexis with panellists from Fichte & Co, including Moaz Forawi, Of Counsel, Dr Laura Voda, Of Counsel and Shehab Mamdouh, Senior Associate. The event, which also highlighted the country’s new labour law, was attended by management and compliance teams from companies around the UAE.

Highlighting major amendments within UAE legislation  

Jasmin Fichte, Managing Director at Fichte and Co highlighted: “The recently updated UAE legislation are significant both in terms of reinforcing the UAE’s position as a market leader in the region that provides companies and individuals with a fair deal in a contract, and for businesses to adapt their internal processes to facilitate the new ways of working. Since the legislation has such important ramifications for the UAE’s growing market, Fichte & Co decided to provide businesses with the right counsel with a free session highlighting all the major amendments to the legislation and their implications for the businesses. We are delighted that the event was very successful and we received a huge audience for it. We aim to continue our quest to provide businesses in the UAE with quality legal counsel that enables them to smoothly run their administrative processes.”

The new labour law of 2021, which came into effect on 2^nd February 2022, has replaced the labour law of 1980. The law incorporates major changes including abolishing unlimited employment contracts, capping probation period timeline to six months, adding additional categories to leave days and new work patterns.

Reinforcing the UAE’s growing labour market

Hussain Hadi, Head of Middle East Publishing, LexisNexis, said, “The UAE has made major upgrades to legislations in its labour law after a very long period, and it is very important for businesses, especially the compliance teams, to make themselves familiar with these changes to ensure they are rightly followed. The new law provides greater flexibility to both employers and employees to mutually agree on a certain working model out of the available options and decide the best course forward. This is expected to have a positive impact on the country’s growing labour market moving ahead. We received excellent feedback on the panel discussion and the expert speakers shared some very useful insights with the attendees that will allow them to fully understand the impact of the changes.”

The Commercial Companies Law (CCL) has now replaced Federal Law no. 2 of 2015 in its entirety. The new law while maintaining several aspects of the previous law has brought major changes to legislation related to foreign ownership, general assembly, public joint-stock companies and Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs).

Acknowledging the relevance of personal data in the world today, the UAE has enacted a law on the Protection of Personal Data (DPL). The law, which applies mainly to data processors and data controllers defines how data is accessed, stored and destroyed.The new regulations ensure that the UAE remains the regional business hub by providing an ecosystem that supports business and personal growth while facilitating mutually beneficial arrangements between employees and employers.

Participants from the seminar were allowed to clear any queries with the experts and Fichte and Co.