Emirates redundancies are not being discussed in details as they should be, if for anything to expose unethical practices, hold the airline accountable and most important support the thousands of expatriates out there suffering mentally, emotionally and physically.
Redundancies are happening across all airlines and this isn't a secret and shouldn't be quite frankly. Emirates kicked off this path on a rather deceptive tone hiding redundancies and completely shying away from transparency. Why might that be? what was making them so unique? Is it that they came out claiming a strong financial and business structure and when they could no longer keep that pretense up they opted to do what they do best and hide realty? why are they always prone to being fake?
Behind the perfectly structured
PR they are running to fund COVID19 care for their customers their employees made redundant are suffering major incompetence.
- The Airline redundancy contract states it will provide a "hardship allowance" should they fail to repatriate you back to your country by your LDS date; receiving this payment is a fight, has no clear structure and quite frankly you could leave the country not having received a dime despite having not being repatriated within the contractual agreement.
- Airline says they will pay out 2 months salary, the actual standard by law is 3 months salary. But of cause they are the government so you get only what they say. There have been issues around paying these salaries and no explanations offered for the indiscretion.
- HR services is drowning in management of the leaving process, with communication spanning weeks if not happening at all. processes are being fumbled, yet every time the airline restructures their HR department is the first to see impact. their incompetence failure to plan and mismanagement is just appalling! All this and they keep requiring redundant employees to understand their circumstances while they fail to empathize with their employees. All support lines were deactivated despite the outcry in need for support.
- End of service benefits are not being paid on time. Some employees have flights booked to depart in the next few days yet no check payment is ready for issuance.
- Employment visas are not being cancelled, employees show up at the airport for booked flights (all flights are booked by the airline) and unable to proceed due to active visas/expired visas with overstay fees etc. The airline has been leaving employees stranded at not just DXB airport but even other airports for those who have connecting flights. Their HR department operates Sun-Thur only 07:00-15:30pm/15:00. If you find yourself in this situation outside of office hours with no support structure from your management you're in trouble and alone! They've gone as ridiculously far as telling employees to settle visa fee issues and claim, who would dare when communication with HR is near impossible while in the country? what more when you've left completely! ignoring emails is a master skill. Visa cancellation is their responsibility, they knew very well they were going to undergo mass redundancies why should employees carry the burden? where is the humanity?
In the media they spoke to highly of their appreciation for their work force, they acknowledged their awareness of how redundancy was destroying lives. Behind closed doors where the media wasn't reporting people suffered humiliation, well-beings were compromised and those affected afraid to speak up because that's potential a offence and is punishable by law.
This Airline gets away with a lot honestly. Their country laws shield them from fair and just scrutiny hence they are never ever questioned or held accountable! yet they enjoy the economic benefits of a diverse range of economies! Take a look at Black lives matter, did anyone scrutinize into their Executive structure? Why not when they have a very strong profitable route flying in and out of Africa? For an establishment that is trying to be in the top 100 brands its high time they come to the table on humanity issues!!