UAE Labour Law: All 8 types of employee leave explained – annual, sick, maternity, paternity and more

Dubai: If you have just started working in the UAE’s private sector, it is important to be aware of the different types of leaves you are entitled to. The UAE’s Labour Law – Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 – provides eight different types of leaves that employees can apply for, as well as the requirements you need to fulfil to be eligible, for certain leave categories. Here is a complete guide on the eight types of leave available and the rules that apply to each. 1. Annual leave Private sector employees are eligible to take two days of leave for each month of service, once they complete six months at a new job. Once they have completed one year of service, they are entitled to a fully paid annual leave of 30 days, according to Article 29 of the UAE Labour Law. The employee also gets a leave for parts of the last year he/she spent at work if his/her service is ended before using the annual leave balance. 2. Maternity leave Article 30 of the UAE’s Labour Law also sets out details of how female workers in the private sector can apply for maternity leave. As per the law, female employees are entitled to a maternity leave of 60 days in the private sector, as per the following breakdown: 45 days are fully-paid leave 15 days are half-paid leave. Employees can apply for this leave up to 30 days prior to the expected date of delivery. While this is the standard allocation of maternity leave, there are also cases when the maternity leave may be extended. For example, female workers can apply for an additional 45 days of leave without pay, if there is an illness as a result of pregnancy or childbirth, which stops them from resuming work. For this additional leave, the employee is required to provide medical certificate issued from the respective medical authority. These leave days can be consecutive or intermittent. If the newborn child is sick or suffers from a disability, the employee may also take additional leaves of up to 30 days fully paid, with another 30 days without pay. In these cases, too, the illness or disability of the child must be proven via a medical certificate issued from the respective medical authority. Even after the employee returns to work, she is entitled to one or two additional breaks each day for nursing her child. The total duration of these breaks should not exceed one hour. 3. Bereavement leave In case of death in the employee’s family, he or she is entitled to a paid compassionate/bereavement leave as follows: 5 days in the event of the death of a spouse 3 days in the event of the death of a parent, child, sibling, grandchild or grandparent. The leave entitlement begins from the date of death. 4. Parental leave New parents – both male and female – are eligible to a parental leave of five working days. This leave can be taken at any time from the day of the birth of their child to six months, according to Article 32 (1) of the UAE Labour Law. 5. Study leave If you are studying at one of the UAE’s accredited educational institutions while working in the private sector, you are entitled to a paid leave of 10 days per year, to sit for examinations. However, employees are only eligible for this leave after completing two years of service with their employer. 6. Hajj and Umrah leave According to u.ae, the official UAE government website, under the UAE Labour Law, employees may be granted a special leave for the performance of Hajj, subject to the following provisions: the leave is unpaid it may not exceed 30 days it is granted only once during the period of employment with the same employer. As for leave related to Umrah, the UAE Labour Law does not provide specific provisions. If the employee requests leave for Umrah, the employer has the discretion to approve, deduct it from the employee’s annual leave balance, or grant it as unpaid leave. 7. Leave to perform national service Emiratis working in the private sector are entitled to a paid sabbatical leave to perform national service. 8. Sick leave Once you complete the probation period, an employee is also entitled to a sick leave of not more than 90 days per year, as per Article 31 of the UAE Labour Law. This can be taken as a continuous leave, or intermittently, as per the following calculation: full pay for the first 15 days half pay for the next 30 days no pay for the remaining 45 days. Although a worker is not entitled to paid sick leave during the probationary period, the employer may grant unpaid sick leave during this time, based on a medical report issued by a recognised medical authority indicating the necessity of such leave.