Travel companies that dock the salaries of their employees to cover expenses such as Agency Debit Memos (ADMs) could be contravening UAE labour law, said a top legal expert.
Alexander McGeoch, head of employment law at local law firm Hadef and Partners said that while companies were allowed to deduct fines from employees’ salaries in principle, there were a number of important conditions: “The most important condition is that the total amount of fines deducted in any one month must not exceed more than five days of the total remuneration,” said McGeoch.
“So if you make a mistake which costs your company, say an amount corresponding to 50% of your monthly remuneration, the company cannot deduct more than the five days pay permitted by law. If the company is doing this then they are clearly in the wrong.
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“The idea that a travel agency can balance its books by recouping funds from the employee is misinformed.”
Airlines in the region have been accused by the travel trade of abusing the system and issuing “unjustified” ADMs in a bid to squeeze additional funds out of travel agents.
And travel agents who are forced to bear the brunt of the fines complain that the practice is costing them dearly.
One agent commented that ADMs are “robbing our source of living. We are working hard to earn money for our family but airlines are taking it from us.”
Travel managers acknowledge that it is standard practice for ADMs to be routinely docked from the salaries of travel consultants responsible for the booking.
Ajith Marath, sr. marketing & sales executive, Abu Dhabi Travel Bureau said it is a “fact that a lot of agents and frontline staff members are penalised for unintentional errors and mistakes.”
Mano Chandra Dhas, UAE country manager, Al Shamel International said excessive ADMs meant it was common for “defaulting staff to see several months’ salary completely disappear.”
But he added that travel agencies had little option but to debit the individual agent concerned. “In my personal opinion, travel agencies should not debit the shortfall to individual accounts of defaulting staff,” said Dhas. “However, if you look at the agency’s position, they could easily be hit with AED 100K (US$ 27,224) or above in a month. It has direct bottom-line implications. It directly takes away from the agency’s profit.
“Looking at it from a different perspective, paying the ADM for a defaulting staff is exactly like paying that particular staff X Dirhams more than other staff in the same grade, who did not commit such an error.”
William Horsley, general manager, Al Futtaim Travel said it “usually did not insist agents pay for debit memos — unless gross negligence is identified on the agent’s part.”
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Sep 5, 2011 , Qatar
A travel agency survey on ADM's can bring in more light on this issue. Mistakes do happen in all areas of work. People learn from mistakes and are ready to pay for any mistake provided the reasons are genuine or recurring errors. But policies, procedures which are not tranparent in rules cannot...
Sep 5, 2011 , Saudi Arabia
Airlines should understand that ADM?s practice has become an obstacle for the Travel Agent to promote their products because the sales front liners are avoiding those Airlines who are blindly debiting agents. Also the article should have included that the mistake is not always a staff mistake, bu...