"We wish all manufacturers and distributors of Windows Mobile phones all the best, but our commitment to provide maximum information to readers has higher priority...

Apparently employees of i-mate who were fired are suing it for wrongful dismissal. About 10 employees have been fired apparently without notice and without severance package. Each of them had 15 minutes to take his/her things and leave the office of i-mate.

i-mate has moved from Glasgow (EU) to Dubai (UAE) in 2003 - just 2 years after grounding - because there are no taxes at all there, but unfortunately (for i-mate) the worker protection laws are much more worker friendly.

The reason for firing people in Dubai's division of i-mate (headquarters!) may be low sales or maybe global restructuring that i-mate is carrying out now or maybe both. Regarding restructuring: apparently some i-mate employees were promised move to USA division of i-mate in Seattle but they were terminated and no move took place.

After HTC decided to brand phones manufactured by them with their own "HTC" brand name, i-mate was forced to use other manufacturers for i-mate branded phones: Inventec and Tech Faith Wireless - both from Taiwan.

i-mate is operating at loss now. In meantime Samsung announced to release 6 new Windows Mobile phones in 2007 alone. Mobile phone business is harsh but smartphone business may be even more difficult..." msmobiles.com

I have full respect to the source of this information and it is also very clear that it is just a rumor. Even though the source is very well known for publishing controversial articles in the past (such as the ones attacking Microsoft MVPs). Is i-mate is really in trouble?! Are they really afraid of the labor laws here in Dubai although the source says it is worker friendly?! Or they are in trouble for being sued by those employees?! Then why they can sue if the labor law is worker friendly?! Or they are in trouble because of the competition?! Maybe this is a very internal matter especially if it is related to staff and the organization it becomes very confidential. I think this rumor should not escalate any further and I wish (just like the source) all manufacturers and distributors of Windows Mobile phones all the best.

MA

quote:

but unfortunately (for i-mate) the worker protection laws are much more worker friendly.

I would say that, it's just they are very simple/clear what you get if terminated ie service benifit + repatriations + pay + holiday earned etc, as a minimum under labour law.

Getting them to pay in not so simple

If true, it was one of my concerns of going Imate again and if you see Kiwi problem hereyou may well be worried

rgds
Steve

SteveJ,

Actually i-mate support was (and still) very horrible, no matter what they do they still can’t handle online support the way it should be. We had some petitions initiated by our memebers, take those for example:

http://mobilitydubaiforums.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6141068401/m/675104775/p/1

http://mobilitydubaiforums.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/61410...=138609325#138609325

http://mobilitydubaiforums.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/61410...=535101446#535101446

However, the published material above, is really considered a private matter, I don’t think anyone should have conclusions either positive or negative with i-mate and their employees, there is always two sides to the story, it is obvious that the published material will provoke people to be very negative and jump to conclusions.

Rumor might end soon... If true - its a bad news for i-mate...

When is the ultimate series scheduled to release??

I donno about you guys but either love or hate i-Mate I still don’t like the way this material is handled, I could not help it but to publish a response to this article, I don’t think such matter should be exposed widely, I think i-Mate are not in trouble due to the incident of terminating staff because they can re-hire others or do whatever they want to do, it is just their own business, I can’t see that this rumor of staff being terminated leads to think that they are in trouble! As I said again there are two sides of the story…

Also, msmobiles have talked about the worker friendly rules!!! What about companies in the US and other European countries when they terminate due to the company loses and restructuring?! This happens all around the world?!

I couldn’t keep silent after reading this article! I think the author should have elaborated on labor rules in Dubai compared to others in this situation, and this situation is very fuzzy!

MA

I agree hire/fire of staff is another matter and out with our topic of intrest.

Maybe it is indicative of company restructuring.

But we don't know if this is for better or worse

I think caution is all we can recommend presently

rgds
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Mohammed Al-Ashram:
I couldn’t keep silent after reading this article! I think the author should have elaborated on labor rules in Dubai compared to others in this situation, and this situation is very fuzzy!

Well, the last few companies I've worked for here in the states have a hire clause that states "termination can be without cause for any reason, and immediate."

This basically states you can be terminated for any reason and at any time. Not that I've seen this ever being implemented, but it's really a sad state...

Rambler

I think France has one of the strongest labour protection

eg If you have commited adutlry with your boss's wife, shot his dog, wrote his car off you still have a 50/50 chance of keeping your job



rgds
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by SteveJ:
MA

I agree hire/fire of staff is another matter and out with our topic of intrest.

Maybe it is indicative of company restructuring.

But we don't know if this is for better or worse

I think caution is all we can recommend presently

rgds
Steve

And this is my point! This is why I published this article because you cannot slap someone on the face and tell him best wishes. The author at msmobiles.com didn’t reveal the real reason behind his article which criticizes my country’s labor law. i-Mate can come up with any labor contract written by them not using the standard labor contract by Ministry of Labor and this contract is a mutual agreement between the company and the employee, if every clause on contract is agreed by the employee then he cannot protest otherwise why he agreed to this policy and the contract clauses in the first place?! What msmobiles.com is trying to achieve with publishing such hazy article?! I think it is just foolish!

quote:

Originally posted by Rambler:
Well, the last few companies I've worked for here in the states have a hire clause that states "termination can be without cause for any reason, and immediate."

This basically states you can be terminated for any reason and at any time. Not that I've seen this ever being implemented, but it's really a sad state...

THANK YOU!

This is an excellent example, and there are many of those available everywhere around the world