Dubai Teachers Reject A School’s New Directive Of Salary Cuts And Placing Staff On Unpaid Leaves

Dubai Teachers Reject A School’s New Directive Of Salary Cuts And Placing Staff On Unpaid Leaves

Teachers at a Dubai school are extremely upset over the new directive from their employers to cut their salaries and impose unpaid leaves for the duration of the pandemic.

According to a report published on Gulf News, on the American International School (AIS) in Dubai has sent out a contract to all their staff imposing a pay cut for five months, from April 1 to August 31.

Many of the teachers have rejected this proposal and are refusing to accept the offer on the basis that it is unfair as “only a few parents have not paid the fees yet, suggesting that the school was not severely impacted by the financial repercussions of the pandemic.”

The school, however, responded back saying it has no alternative and cannot accept the rejection of the contract

Many of the teachers who refused to sign the contract received a letter from the operator saying, “due to the current lockdown of schools as per government regulations, we cannot amend our offer and therefore cannot accept your rejection of the same”.

A representative at Athena Education, the operator of AIS, retorted that they were following “government regulation” in the implementation of the new staff directives.

A core subject teacher said that she is the sole bread earner in her family and this decision from the school is unfair

According to Gulf News, this teacher mentioned that she “was not in a position to make ends meet with a salary cut.”

Teachers at the school are inclined to a “subsistence allowance” of AED1,500 that covers up their essentials up until they are “able to and choose to leave for their home country,” as stated in a document provided to teachers by the institution’s HR.