UAE Labour Law: Notice Period, Resignation and Leave Guide

If a disagreement over your notice period or final pay ever comes down to it, the numbers are on your side. MOHRE settled 98.6 percent of private sector labour disputes in 2025 without a single case reaching court, according to the ministry’s own reporting. Knowing your actual rights from the start is usually enough to avoid a drawn out fight, and those rights come from Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, which replaced the older 1980 law on 2 February 2022.

This law sets out your notice period, resignation rights, and leave entitlements, and applies to private sector employees across the mainland and most free zones, though government employees and domestic workers follow separate frameworks. A lot of confusion online comes from articles that mix up the old law with the current one, since article numbers changed completely, an Article 120 or 121 reference under the 1980 law is not the same article today. This page sticks to the current law and says clearly when something is genuinely unclear rather than guessing.

Notice Period Under UAE Labour Law

Under Article 43 of the labour law, either party can end an employment contract by giving written notice, for a period agreed in the contract of no less than 30 days and no more than 90 days. The same length applies to both employer and employee, so a company cannot require you to give 90 days while only giving you 30 in return. This symmetry is a deliberate protection, since the older law allowed more room for imbalance between the two sides.

Notice must be delivered in a way that can be proven, such as email with a read receipt, a registered letter, or an acknowledged handover. A resignation announced verbally in a heated moment does not legally start the clock, no matter how clearly it was communicated at the time.

A Worked Notice Period Example

The Unpaid Job Search Day

During your notice period, you are entitled to one unpaid day off per week to search for a new job, provided you notify your employer at least three days in advance. Official sources describe this specifically for cases where the employer terminates the contract. Whether the same right extends to employees who resign is less clearly documented, so confirm with HR or MOHRE if you are resigning and want to use this day.

Notice Period During Leave

If either side wants to end the contract while you are on approved leave, the notice period does not start until the day after you return, unless both parties agree otherwise. This closed a gap in the older law, which did not clearly say when notice began in this situation.

Notice Period During Probation

Probation periods run for up to six months. If your employer ends your contract during probation, they generally owe you 14 days’ written notice. If you resign during probation, the standard notice requirement is usually shorter than the post-probation period, though the exact figure should be confirmed against your specific contract. Some contracts also allow the employer to waive notice entirely during probation if the employee is moving to another role within the UAE, subject to conditions set out in the executive regulations, so it is worth checking your own paperwork rather than assuming a single universal probation rule applies to every case.

Old Law Article Numbers vs Current Law

Since so much confusion comes from mismatched article numbers, here is a quick reference for the topics covered on this page.

You may also come across references to Article 117 of the old law in older guides. We could not verify a reliable primary source confirming exactly what this article covered, so rather than guess, we recommend treating any specific old-law article number you encounter with caution and checking it against the current law’s actual provisions listed above, since the numbering changed substantially between the two versions.

If an article number you have seen online does not match what is described here, it is very likely referencing the repealed 1980 law rather than the current one.

How to Resign the Right Way

Resigning correctly protects your final settlement and your ability to work for a new employer without complications.

Following these steps in order reduces the chance of a dispute over your notice period, your final pay, or your ability to start a new role quickly.

Resigning Without Notice

Article 45 allows an employee to leave without serving notice in specific situations, including if the employer fails to pay wages or meet contractual obligations and does not fix this within 14 working days of being notified through MOHRE, if the employee faces assault, harassment, or serious safety risks at work, or if the employer assigns work substantially different from what was agreed without consent.

Early Resignation on a Fixed Term Contract

Since all standard private sector contracts are now fixed term, resigning before your contract’s end date can involve compensation to your employer, since you are ending the agreement early. The exact amount depends on your contract terms and the remaining period, so this is genuinely case specific rather than a single fixed formula, and worth confirming with HR or MOHRE before you resign if your contract has significant time left.

In practice, many contracts include a specific early termination clause that spells out the compensation method in advance, so checking your own contract wording is usually more useful than relying on a general rule of thumb. If your contract is silent on this point, MOHRE mediation is the standard route to resolve any disagreement over the amount owed.

Severance Pay and Your Final Settlement

Some employees use the term severance pay when asking about UAE labour law, expecting a payment separate from gratuity, especially if they previously worked in a country where severance and end of service benefits are calculated differently. In the UAE, there is no separate severance payment layered on top of your standard entitlements. What people usually mean by severance here is your full final settlement, gratuity plus any unpaid wages, leave encashment, and notice pay, all covered in detail on our Gratuity Calculator UAE page.

This is worth clarifying early, since assuming a separate severance payment exists can lead to confusion when your final settlement letter only shows the components described above.

Who Pays Recruitment and Visa Costs

A common source of confusion, and a frequent complaint pattern online, is whether employees should pay for their own visa, work permit, or medical test. Under Article 6 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, the employer must bear recruitment and employment costs, including visa fees, work permit charges, and medical testing, and cannot recover these costs from the employee directly or indirectly.

If you change employers within the UAE, the new employer generally compensates the previous one for recruitment costs directly, through MOHRE, rather than involving you in that payment at all. If your employer asks you to personally pay for your own visa or work permit, this is worth raising with MOHRE, since it runs against the cost allocation the law sets out.

Training Bond Clauses

Some employment contracts include a clause requiring you to repay training costs if you leave within a set period, often one or two years. These clauses can be enforceable if they are clearly written, reasonable in amount, and tied to genuine training costs rather than used as a blanket penalty for leaving early. If you are asked to sign a contract with this kind of clause, read it carefully and ask HR to clarify exactly what triggers the repayment obligation.

Leave Types Every Employee Should Know

Beyond annual leave, the law sets out several other paid and unpaid leave categories private sector employees should know about.

Compassionate or Bereavement Leave

Under Article 32, private sector employees get five days of paid leave for the death of a spouse, and three days for the death of a parent, child, sibling, grandchild, or grandparent, starting from the date of death. The UAE Government’s official page on compassionate leave confirms these figures. This entitlement does not automatically extend to the death of in-laws, which is left to employer discretion.

Marriage Leave

Unlike some other countries, current UAE labour law does not set out a specific statutory marriage leave entitlement. If your employer offers paid leave for your own wedding, this comes from company policy rather than a legal requirement, so check your employment contract or HR policy rather than assuming a fixed number of days.

Medical and Health Insurance

Health insurance for employees in the UAE is generally governed by separate emirate level regulations, such as Dubai’s mandatory health insurance rules, rather than by the labour law itself. Your employer is required to provide health coverage under these separate rules, but the specific benefits and provider depend on your employer’s policy and your emirate.

Sick Leave

Employees who have completed probation are generally entitled to up to 90 days of sick leave per year, structured as the first 15 days on full pay, the next 30 days at half pay, and any remaining days unpaid, provided a valid medical certificate supports the leave.

Parental and Study Leave

The law also sets out parental leave, generally up to five working days for either parent following the birth of a child, and study leave for employees pursuing further education at an accredited UAE institution, provided the employee has completed at least two years of service. Exact eligibility conditions and documentation requirements are best confirmed directly with HR, since company policy can add detail the law leaves open.

Annual Leave

Standard annual leave entitlement is a minimum of 30 calendar days per year once you pass six months of service, with a smaller pro rata entitlement during your first six months. Unused annual leave at the end of your employment is paid out as leave encashment as part of your final settlement.

Public Holidays

Employees are entitled to paid leave on official UAE public holidays, which are announced each year by the UAE Government and typically include National Day, Eid al Fitr, Eid al Adha, Islamic New Year, the Prophet’s Birthday, and New Year’s Day. If your role requires you to work on a public holiday, you are generally entitled to a substitute rest day or additional pay for that day, as agreed with your employer.

Air Ticket and Repatriation

This is one of the more misunderstood areas of UAE labour law. The current law does not explicitly require employers to provide a recurring annual flight ticket home during your employment. Where employees do get one, it almost always comes from the specific wording of their employment contract or company policy, not directly from the law itself, so check your contract rather than assume this is a legal guarantee.

What the law does clearly require is different: under Article 13, your employer must cover the cost of repatriating you to your home country, or another mutually agreed location, once your employment ends. This repatriation duty generally falls away if you resign specifically to join another employer inside the UAE, since the new employer effectively takes over that responsibility. If your contract separately promises an annual ticket or allowance, that promise is still enforceable, just as a contractual right rather than a statutory one.

Worker Rights and Obligations

UAE worker laws are built around a few consistent principles that apply across almost every private sector role, regardless of nationality, job title, or salary level.

Common Mistakes People Make With UAE Labour Law

What Happens If Your Employer Breaks the Law

If your employer fails to pay wages, ignores notice period rules, or does not settle your final dues, you can file a free complaint with MOHRE through the MOHRE enquiry portal, the mobile app, or a Tasheel center. MOHRE will attempt mediation first, and unresolved cases can move to the labour court, where claims under AED 100,000 generally do not require a lawyer. Termination in retaliation for a valid MOHRE complaint or lawsuit is considered unlawful dismissal, and a court can order compensation if this is proven.

Keeping clear written evidence, your contract, salary slips, and any correspondence with your employer, gives MOHRE and the court something concrete to review, and generally speeds up the mediation process considerably compared to a vague verbal complaint.

For a full walkthrough of checking your employment records and filing a complaint, see our UAE labour card guide.

Where to Find the Official Law Text

If you want to read the full legal text rather than a summary, Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 is published as an official PDF on both the UAE Legislation portal and the MOHRE website. These are the only sources worth relying on for the exact legal wording, since many other PDF downloads circulating online are outdated copies from before the 2022, 2023, and 2024 amendments.

Documents Worth Keeping Throughout Your Employment

Keeping a few key documents organized protects you if a dispute ever arises over notice, resignation, or final pay. This matters just as much on day one of a new job as it does when you are preparing to leave.

Employees who keep these records organized from the start generally have a much easier time resolving any disagreement with HR or MOHRE later, since a written paper trail carries far more weight than a verbal account of what was agreed.