UAE Employer Labour Law Checklist 2026
Contracts, probation, hours, wages, leave and exits under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 — every rule cited to the article that sets it.
8 min
Most labour complaints in the UAE start with something an employer could have checked: a late salary, a notice period that was skipped, final dues paid after the deadline, or leave that was never counted.
This checklist covers the private-sector rules an employer runs into every month, taken from MOHRE's consolidated text of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and its Implementing Regulation (Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022), read on 25 October 2026. It is a summary for employers, not legal advice.
1. Contracts and MOHRE
Every private-sector employee works under a fixed-term contract on MOHRE's approved form, signed by both sides. A new contract must be applied for within 60 days of the employee entering the UAE or changing status, and MOHRE states 2 working days to issue it.
- Use the right form: full-time, part-time, temporary, flexible, remote or job sharing (Implementing Regulation, Art. 10).
- Include the wage with allowances, working hours, rest days, annual leave, probation, notice period and termination procedure (Implementing Regulation, Art. 10).
2. Probation
Probation can last up to six months and can be used only once with the same employee (Art. 9).
- To end employment during probation, give at least 14 days' written notice.
- An employee moving to another UAE employer during probation gives one month's written notice; one leaving the UAE gives 14 days.
- No paid sick leave is due during probation (Art. 31).
3. Working hours and overtime
Normal hours are at most 8 a day or 48 a week (Art. 17, per u.ae), two hours fewer a day in Ramadan (Implementing Regulation, Art. 15).
- Overtime: no more than 2 hours a day unless needed to prevent a serious loss or accident, and no more than 144 working hours every 3 weeks (Art. 19).
- Pay at least the basic wage + 25%, or + 50% between 10 pm and 4 am (shift workers excluded) (Art. 19).
- Work on a rest day or public holiday: give another day off or pay the day's wage plus at least 50% of the basic day's wage (Art. 19, Art. 28).
4. Wages and WPS
Since 1 June 2026, Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 makes the 1st of each month the due date for the previous month's wages, paid through the Wage Protection System. New work permits are suspended from day 5 of a delay.
- An establishment counts as compliant if it transfers at least 85% of the wages due by the due date; workers keep the right to their full wages.
- A repeat delay within six months brings an administrative fine and reclassification into MOHRE's third category.
5. Leave
Count leave from the contract start and keep a record of every day taken.
- Annual leave: at least 30 days a year, or 2 days a month between six months and a year, at full wage; give at least a month's notice of leave dates; carry-over with approval, up to half (Art. 29; Implementing Regulation, Art. 19).
- Sick leave after probation: up to 90 days a year — 15 full pay, 30 half pay, the rest unpaid (Art. 31).
- Maternity: 60 days — 45 full wage, 15 half wage (Art. 30). Parental: 5 working days for either parent within six months of the birth (Art. 32).
- Bereavement: 5 days for a spouse, 3 days for listed relatives (Art. 32).
6. Ending employment
Give notice of 30 to 90 days in writing, as the contract says, and pay the full wage during it; skipping notice costs the wage for the notice period or its remainder (Art. 43).
- Gratuity for a full-time foreign employee with a year or more of continuous service: 21 days' basic wage for each of the first five years, 30 days for each year after, capped at two years' wage (Art. 51).
- Pay all final dues within 14 days of the contract ending (Art. 53).
- Unused annual leave on exit is paid on the basic wage (Art. 29; Implementing Regulation, Art. 19).
- Dismissal without notice is allowed only in the ten cases in Article 44, after a written investigation and with a written, reasoned decision.
7. Disputes and fines
Every individual dispute goes to MOHRE first. MOHRE can decide claims of up to AED 50,000 itself, and claims are barred two years after employment ends (Art. 54, as amended in 2024).
- Employing someone without a work permit, recruiting without giving work, misusing permits, closing without settling dues or fictitious hiring: fines of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000 (Art. 60), multiplied by the number of workers up to AED 10,000,000 (Art. 62).
Quick checklist
- Every employee has a MOHRE-approved, fixed-term contract on the right form.
- New contracts are filed within 60 days of entry or change of status.
- Probation is six months or less and used once per employee.
- Normal hours stay within 8 a day / 48 a week, with Ramadan hours reduced by two a day.
- Overtime is logged and paid at least basic + 25% (+ 50% at night).
- Salaries reach WPS by the 1st of each month.
- Annual, sick, maternity and parental leave balances are tracked per employee.
- Leave dates are notified at least a month ahead.
- Notice periods of 30–90 days are in every contract and respected in writing.
- Final dues, gratuity and unused leave are paid within 14 days of exit.
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