UAE leave entitlements: Every kind of leave,
with the days and the pay.

What leave is a UAE employee entitled to?

The entitlements below are the minimums for the private sector on the UAE mainland, under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. A contract or a company policy can give more, and where it does the contract is what the employee is owed.

How much annual leave is there?

An employee earns thirty calendar days for each year of service once the first year is complete. Someone who has served more than six months but less than a year earns two days a month. In the first six months there is no statutory accrual. Part-time employees earn leave in proportion to the hours they work.

The employer decides when leave is taken, according to the needs of the work and in agreement with the employee, and has to give at least a month's notice of the dates. Leave is meant to be used in the year it is earned. An employer cannot stop an employee using earned leave for more than two years, unless the employee chooses to carry it forward or to be paid for it under the company's rules.

• Public holidays and weekends that fall inside a period of annual leave count as part of it, unless the contract says otherwise
• Leave left untaken when employment ends is paid out, on basic salary
• An employee who leaves part way through a year is paid for the fraction of the year worked

How is sick leave paid?

Paid sick leave begins once probation has ended. From then an employee can take up to ninety days in a year, in one stretch or in pieces, and the pay steps down as the days are used.

The employee has to tell the employer within three working days and produce a medical report from the health authority. During probation the employer may allow sick leave, but it is unpaid. Sick pay is not owed where the illness comes from the employee's own misconduct, such as alcohol or drugs, or from ignoring safety instructions the employee had been told about.

How long is maternity leave?

Maternity leave is sixty days: forty-five on full pay, then fifteen on half pay. It can start up to thirty days before the expected date of delivery. Unlike the previous law, it does not depend on a year of service.

Maternity leave is owed where the birth happens at six months of pregnancy or later, including a stillbirth or a baby who dies after birth.

• A further 45 days without pay, in one stretch or several, where an illness caused by the pregnancy or the birth keeps her from returning, supported by a medical certificate
• A further 30 days on full pay after maternity leave where the baby is ill or has a disability that needs a constant companion, and 30 more without pay after that, on a medical report
• After returning, one or two nursing breaks a day, an hour in total, paid, for six months from the birth
• Maternity leave does not reduce any other leave she is entitled to

An employer cannot dismiss an employee, or serve notice on her, because she is pregnant or on maternity leave.

Who gets parental leave?

Either parent, the father or the mother, gets five working days of paid parental leave to care for the child. The days can be taken together or separately, at any time from the birth until the child is six months old. For a mother they are in addition to maternity leave.

How much bereavement leave is there?

An employee is owed five days of paid leave on the death of a husband or wife, and three days on the death of a parent, a child, a brother or sister, a grandparent or a grandchild. The leave runs from the date of the death.

Who gets study leave?

An employee who is enrolled at an educational institution approved in the UAE can take ten working days a year, paid, to sit examinations. It applies after two years of service with the employer.

What about national service, unpaid leave and Hajj?

UAE nationals called for national service are given paid leave for it, under the national service law. Beyond the kinds listed above, an employee can take leave without pay if the employer agrees. Unpaid leave does not count towards length of service, which matters for end-of-service gratuity.

Hajj leave can be granted under the UAE labour law: it is unpaid, it may not exceed thirty days, and it is given only once during employment with the same employer. Umrah has no statutory leave of its own; the employer can approve it, take it from annual leave or grant it unpaid.

How are public holidays paid?

Public holidays are set each year by a Cabinet decision and are paid. Where the work requires someone to come in on a public holiday, the employer owes either another day off in its place, or that day's pay with at least fifty per cent of basic salary on top.

What should be kept on the record?

• Each kind of leave as its own type with its own yearly allowance, so sick days are never netted against annual leave
• The medical report for every period of sick leave, and who was allowed to see it
• For sick leave, the running total for the year, since the pay band depends on it
• The dates leave started and ended, and the date the employee actually returned
• Who approved each request, and when