UAE Labour Law Annual Leave: Entitlements, Employer Obligations, and Common Disputes in the Private Sector

UAE Labour Law Annual Leave: Entitlements, Employer Obligations, and Disputes in the Private Sector

Estimated reading time: 17 minutes

Key Takeaways

• Annual leave in the UAE private sector is regulated principally by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Concerning the Regulation of Labour Relations and Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 Concerning the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Regulating Labour Relations.
• Employees receive 30 calendar days of paid annual leave after 1 full year of service; pro-rata entitlement (2 days per month) after 6 months but less than 1 year.
• Annual leave is usually counted as calendar days; public holidays during leave are considered part of annual leave unless contract/policy is more favourable.
• On termination, unused annual leave must be paid out at the employee’s basic salary only (not allowances, unless otherwise agreed).
• Employers must not prevent employees from using accrued leave for more than 2 consecutive years unless the employee opts to carry it forward or receive cash in lieu (subject to policy and regulations).
• Mismanagement of leave—such as refusal to grant leave, miscalculation for part-timers, or improper forfeiture—frequently leads to legal disputes in the UAE.
• Payroll, HR policy, and legal compliance must all align with the current legal framework, not old or foreign standards.

UAE labour law annual leave under the current private-sector regime

Annual leave remains one of the most frequently disputed areas of private-sector employment regulation in the United Arab Emirates because the statutory framework is relatively clear, yet workplace implementation often diverges from the text of the law, payroll practice, and internal human resources policy. As of 20 June 2026, UAE labour law annual leave in the private sector continues to be governed principally by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Concerning the Regulation of Labour Relations, as amended, and Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 Concerning the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Regulating Labour Relations. The official UAE Government platform also continues to summarise the operative annual leave rules for private-sector employment, with its annual leave guidance showing an update date of 6 October 2025. These are the current primary materials against which any employer policy, employment contract, payroll formula, or end-of-service settlement should be checked.

For employers, human resources professionals, private-sector employees, and multinational businesses, annual leave has significance well beyond the scheduling of holidays. It affects payroll compliance, workforce planning, accrued liability management, final settlement calculations, employment contract drafting, policy design, and the conduct of labour disputes. In practice, the most common questions concern whether annual leave entitlements UAE law treats as 30 days are measured in calendar days or working days, whether public holidays within the leave period are added back, whether unused leave may accumulate indefinitely, whether payment in lieu is optional or mandatory, and how the rules differ between full-time and part-time employment models. These questions must be answered by reference to the current legal regime, not by reference to repealed legislation, outdated handbook wording, or imported foreign policies.

The present legal framework is materially more structured than the historical practice that prevailed under earlier legislation. The law confirms the minimum annual leave entitlement, the rules for workers who have completed more than 6 months but less than 1 year of service, the special treatment of part-time work, the employer’s authority to schedule leave subject to statutory safeguards, and the employee’s entitlement to payment for unused annual leave on termination. It also establishes an important control against excessive accumulation by providing that the employer may not prevent the employee from using accrued annual leave for more than 2 consecutive years, unless the employee elects carry-forward or cash compensation in accordance with company policy and the Executive Regulation. This is one of the most important labour law updates annual leave UAE employers must understand because it directly affects compliance risk and the handling of historical leave balances.

This article provides a practitioner-level analysis of UAE labour law annual leave, with particular attention to annual leave entitlements UAE private-sector employees receive, the employee rights annual leave UAE law protects, the employer obligations annual leave UAE businesses must discharge, and the most frequent categories of disputes annual leave UAE employers and employees encounter in practice. The discussion is confined to the federal private-sector regime and does not address the separate rules applicable to federal government employees, the Dubai International Financial Centre, the Abu Dhabi Global Market, or domestic workers, each of which must be considered under its own legal framework.

For employers, integrating annual leave compliance with broader end-of-service obligations is critical. To understand how final settlements and end-of-service gratuity must align with current regulations, see this comprehensive UAE gratuity calculator guide for details on accurate end-of-service benefit calculations under UAE Labour Law.

The current legal framework and the scope of application

The legal starting point for any analysis of UAE labour law annual leave is the continued force of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Concerning the Regulation of Labour Relations, as amended. As of 20 June 2026, that decree-law remains the core labour statute governing private-sector employment in the State. The decree-law repealed Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 Regulating Labour Relations and inconsistent prior provisions, and it must therefore be treated as the controlling statutory source for private-sector leave rights. The Executive Regulation was issued through Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 Concerning the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Regulating Labour Relations, and that resolution remains operative.

This distinction between current and repealed law is not academic. A significant number of businesses still rely on internal templates, regional policies, payroll assumptions, and handbook provisions that originated under the pre-2022 framework. In a compliance review, that approach is unsafe. Any internal policy that addresses annual leave must now be measured against the current decree-law and the Executive Regulation. An employer may always provide treatment that is more favourable than the statutory minimum, but it should not reduce the minimum entitlement, misstate the statutory accrual rules, create an impermissible forfeiture outcome, or treat final leave encashment in a manner inconsistent with the law. For private-sector employers with operations across mainland entities and free zones, this is especially important because a single regional policy is not automatically compliant across all jurisdictions.

The federal labour regime applies as the baseline to private-sector employment in mainland United Arab Emirates. Certain free zones may apply the federal framework directly or may have their own employment regulations. Where a free-zone regime exists, the employer must verify whether the local rules mirror the federal minimum or provide more favourable treatment. It is therefore inaccurate to suggest that annual leave rules are absolutely uniform across mainland, non-financial free zones, the Dubai International Financial Centre, and the Abu Dhabi Global Market. The present article addresses the private-sector federal regime only. That means the analysis here should not be treated as advice for the Dubai International Financial Centre, the Abu Dhabi Global Market, or the federal government human resources system governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 49 of 2022 on Human Resources in the Federal Government.

The UAE Government’s official annual leave guidance remains a useful interpretive source because it publicly restates the operative legal position in practical language and confirms the current approach on service thresholds, full pay, part-time treatment, employer notice, carry-forward, public holidays within leave, and payment for unused leave on termination. Although the decree-law and Executive Regulation remain the legally authoritative texts, the official guidance is valuable because it reflects how the State is currently communicating employee rights annual leave UAE law protects and employer obligations annual leave UAE businesses must respect. For legal drafting purposes, however, any proposition of substance should still be anchored in the decree-law and implementing regulation rather than in informal commentary.

For those dealing with employment in the Dubai International Financial Centre or seeking a comparison between DIFC employment law and the UAE federal framework, see this dedicated DIFC arbitration and employment law legal guide for a detailed practical analysis.

Annual leave entitlements UAE employees receive under Article 29

The core rules on annual leave entitlements UAE employees receive are found in Article 29 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Concerning the Regulation of Labour Relations. The structure is simple in statutory form but frequently mishandled in practical administration. First, the employee becomes entitled to annual leave after completing 6 months of service in accordance with Article 29, however Article 29 also permits the employer to agree to grant leave from the worker’s annual leave balance during the probation period. Secondly, where the employee has completed more than 6 months but less than 1 year of service, the entitlement is 2 days of annual leave for each month of service. Thirdly, once the employee completes 1 full year of service, the entitlement becomes 30 days of annual leave with full pay for each year of service. Finally, where the employment relationship ends before accrued leave has been used, the employee is entitled to leave for the fraction of the final year worked.

These rules answer several recurring practical questions. The first is whether annual leave exists as a first-day statutory entitlement under the federal private-sector regime. It does not. The law expressly links entitlement to service thresholds. The second is whether the federal minimum is 20 working days, 22 working days, or some imported international equivalent. It is not. The statutory benchmark after 1 year is 30 days, subject to the legal framework that governs how those days are counted. The third is whether a final settlement may lawfully ignore accruals arising in the partial final year of service. It may not. The employee is entitled to the accrued fraction of the last year worked, and any final settlement that excludes that component risks underpayment.

A further issue that frequently arises under UAE labour law annual leave is whether the statutory 30-day entitlement is calculated in calendar days or working days. The federal texts do not use the terminology of many foreign jurisdictions that expressly define annual leave in “business days.” The official UAE Government guidance states that public holidays or agreed leave days that fall within the annual leave period are considered part of the annual leave unless the employment contract or company policies provide more favourable terms. That formulation strongly supports the prevailing interpretation that the federal minimum operates on a calendar-day basis, subject always to a more favourable contractual provision. In practical terms, where an employee books annual leave across a period that includes weekends or public holidays, those days are ordinarily counted within the leave period under the federal minimum standard unless the contract or policy improves the position.

Part-time employment requires distinct treatment. The decree-law provides that part-time workers are entitled to annual leave according to the actual working hours spent with the employer, and the detailed methodology appears in Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. The Executive Regulation states that a worker employed under a part-time model is entitled to annual leave calculated on the basis of actual working hours converted into working days, divided by the number of working days per annum, multiplied by the leave determined by law, with a minimum of 5 working days per annum for annual leave. It also provides that part of a day is treated as a full day for that calculation. This is a materially important rule for employers using part-time work models because Article 18 of Cabinet Resolution No. (1) of 2022 sets a specific formula for annual leave of workers operating under the part-time model. Accurate contract classification and accurate records of actual hours are critical to compliance.

For businesses with operations in both UAE mainland and free zones, a comparative overview of the regulatory frameworks—including impact on leave policies—is available in this strategic mainland vs free zone comparison Dubai guide.

Employee rights annual leave UAE law protects during employment and at termination

A proper treatment of employee rights annual leave UAE law protects requires a distinction between 3 separate rights: the right to take leave, the right to receive pay during leave, and the right to be compensated for unused leave. These are not interchangeable concepts. During annual leave, the employee is entitled to full pay under Article 29 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Concerning the Regulation of Labour Relations. The official UAE Government guidance likewise states that annual leave is fully paid. Where the employment relationship terminates before accrued annual leave has been used, the employee is entitled to payment for unused leave, including leave accrued for part of the final year.

The calculation basis is one of the areas most often misunderstood in practice. During active employment, annual leave is paid leave, and the employee’s wage structure under the labour relationship may include basic salary together with fixed contractual allowances. By contrast, the official government guidance on annual leave states that payment for unused annual leave upon termination is calculated on the basis of the employee’s basic salary. This distinction matters greatly. Many employees assume that end-of-service leave encashment must be based on total remuneration, while many employers make the opposite mistake and apply the basic-salary standard to leave taken during employment. The current framework does not support treating these two situations identically. From a compliance perspective, ordinary paid annual leave during employment and cash settlement of unused leave on termination should be analysed separately.

Another issue often raised in practice is the timing of leave pay. The most secure legal position is to state that annual leave is paid leave and that the employee should receive the benefit of that pay in connection with the leave period itself. Employers should therefore ensure that payroll administration does not treat annual leave as unpaid absence to be corrected later in a subsequent cycle. Even where the legislation does not set out every payroll mechanics point in formulaic detail, the legal character of annual leave as paid leave remains clear. Delayed payment can therefore become a dispute point, especially where the employee alleges that approved annual leave was economically unusable because salary was withheld or materially delayed.

The termination scenario is especially important because it generates a high volume of disputes annual leave UAE labour claims. Where employment ends by resignation, employer termination, expiry of contract term, or another lawful route, unused annual leave must be settled. The official government guidance states that the employee is entitled to payment for any unused annual leave regardless of its duration and is also entitled to payment for leave accrued for part of the year, calculated on the basis of basic salary. In practical terms, this means that a lawful final settlement should test not only the visible leave balance recorded in the internal system, but also whether accruals were correctly generated, whether any approved carry-forward was properly recorded, whether any unpaid leave period affected accrual, and whether any approved but untaken leave during notice was converted into cash correctly.

If you need to understand how annual leave interacts with other major employment events such as employee investigations, disciplinary procedures, and dismissal risk—where leave records often play a role in dispute management—refer to this expert guide on employee investigations and dismissal risk under UAE labour law.

Employer obligations annual leave UAE businesses must treat as compliance-critical

The employer obligations annual leave UAE law imposes are broader than the simple grant of a number of days. The employer must calculate entitlement accurately, administer annual leave fairly, schedule it in a lawful manner, pay it correctly, preserve records, and avoid internal policies that undercut minimum statutory rights. In practice, the employer’s core legal duties include proper leave accrual according to service length and work model, proper scheduling in line with business needs and statutory safeguards, proper payment during annual leave, and proper settlement of unused leave on termination. These obligations arise under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Concerning the Regulation of Labour Relations and Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022.

The law gives the employer a recognised managerial role in fixing leave dates. The employer may set the dates of leave according to work requirements, in agreement with the employee, and may grant leave on a rotational basis to ensure business continuity. However, this authority is not unlimited. The official government guidance states that the employer must notify the employee of the leave dates at least 1 month in advance. This is a point of genuine compliance importance. Employers that impose shutdown periods, seasonal leave windows, or project-driven leave blocks must still comply with the advance notice requirement and should document the business rationale clearly. In a later dispute, consistency of administration often matters almost as much as the wording of the policy itself.

The rule that has had the greatest practical impact on accumulated leave liabilities is the statutory restriction that the employer may not prevent the employee from using accrued annual leave for more than 2 consecutive years, unless the employee chooses to carry it over or opts to receive cash compensation in accordance with company policies and the Executive Regulation. This rule appears in the official annual leave guidance and is supported by Article 29 of the decree-law read together with Article 19 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. For employers, this means that a long-standing practice of repeatedly deferring leave for operational reasons is legally dangerous. A business cannot lawfully rely on workforce demands to keep an employee continuously at work for several years and then seek to avoid payment by invoking an internal forfeiture clause.

Internal policy drafting is therefore a compliance issue of substance, not merely an administrative matter. A properly drafted annual leave policy should address the accrual basis, the leave year, the request and approval process, employer scheduling powers, notice periods, treatment of public holidays within leave, carry-forward procedures, any cash-in-lieu arrangements permitted during employment, treatment of shutdown periods, and the method of final settlement on termination. It should also distinguish clearly between the statutory minimum and any enhanced contractual entitlement. If the employer grants a more favourable benefit, such as excluding public holidays from annual leave, granting more than 30 days, or calculating termination encashment on a basis more generous than basic salary, that position should be stated expressly and applied consistently. Selective or discretionary administration of enhanced benefits is a common source of avoidable disputes.

Annual leave compliance is integral to post-incorporation corporate governance and ongoing business renewal procedures. For practical tips on company compliance, corporate governance setup, and annual compliance audits post-incorporation, see this annual business renewal procedures UAE guide.

Carry-forward, cash in lieu, public holidays, probation, and notice period

Under the current UAE labour law annual leave regime, the default expectation is that annual leave should be used in the year in which it becomes due. However, the law allows a degree of flexibility. The employee may, with the employer’s consent and in accordance with the company’s regulations, carry over unused annual leave or part of it to the following year. This is reflected in the official government guidance and developed in Article 19 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 Concerning the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Regulating Labour Relations. The Executive Regulation states that the worker may carry forward into the following year what does not exceed half of the annual leave or may agree with the employer to receive its equivalent in cash in accordance with the wage earned at the time the leave is due. This is a point that should be stated carefully because the draft market practice often cites the “15-day maximum” without identifying the legal text. The more accurate legal formulation is that the worker may carry forward up to half of the annual leave, which in the common 30-day model results in 15 days.

The law also recognises the possibility of cash compensation instead of taking leave, but this should not be mischaracterised as a unilateral and automatic employee right during ongoing employment. Under Article 19 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, the worker may agree with the employer to receive a cash equivalent. The governing concepts are therefore agreement and compliance with the applicable company framework. During ongoing employment, payment in lieu should be documented clearly and should not be used as a mechanism for systematically depriving employees of actual rest periods in a way that conflicts with the purpose of statutory leave. On termination, however, the position is different: the worker is entitled to the cash equivalent of the balance of annual leave due by law in accordance with the worker’s basic salary.

Public holidays remain a frequent source of misunderstanding in disputes annual leave UAE employers face. The official government guidance states that public holidays or agreed leave days that fall within the annual leave period are considered part of the annual leave, unless the employment contract or company policy provides more favourable terms for the employee. The practical consequence is that, under the federal minimum standard, a public holiday during annual leave does not automatically extend the leave or generate an extra replacement day. Many disputes arise because employees compare their rights with systems that count annual leave only in working days. The federal private-sector position should therefore be explained carefully in contracts, employee handbooks, and onboarding materials.

With respect to probation, the statutory annual leave entitlement remains linked to the completion of 6 months of service. Accordingly, a worker does not ordinarily enjoy the statutory annual leave entitlement from the first day of probation. Employers may, as a matter of policy or agreement, permit leave during probation as unpaid leave or as an advance against future entitlement, but that is a discretionary arrangement rather than the statutory baseline. Once the worker passes the 6-month threshold, the accrual framework under Article 29 applies. Employers should be careful not to describe discretionary probation leave as though it were the statutory minimum, and employees should likewise understand that contractually granted probation leave and statutory annual leave are not necessarily the same thing.

The treatment of annual leave and notice periods requires particular caution because Article 35 provides that, where either party wishes to terminate the employment contract during the worker’s leave period, the contractual notice period does not start to run until the day following the worker’s scheduled return from leave, unless both parties agree otherwise. In practice, many employers require the employee to work the notice period and then settle unused annual leave in the final account. In other cases, annual leave may be taken during notice by agreement. Because disputes often arise later over whether the leave ran concurrently with notice, suspended the notice period, or was converted into payment instead, any leave arrangement during notice should be expressly documented. That recommendation should be understood as prudent legal practice rather than as a statement that the law prescribes one universal notice-period rule for every employment situation.

When resolving annual leave issues at the end of employment, consult the proper methodology for end-of-service settlements, which is further elaborated in our UAE gratuity calculator and end-of-service benefits guide.

Disputes annual leave UAE employers and employees most commonly face

Most disputes annual leave UAE employers and employees face fall into a limited number of recurring categories. The first concerns underpayment during annual leave or underpayment of unused leave on termination. During ongoing employment, the dispute often concerns whether the employer failed to treat annual leave as fully paid leave. On termination, the issue is usually whether the employer correctly calculated unused leave on the basis of basic salary, as required by the official government guidance and reflected in Article 19 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. These disputes are usually evidence-driven. The employment contract, payroll records, wage structure, leave ledger, and final settlement sheet are often decisive.

The second category concerns prolonged refusal of leave requests. Under the present regime, an employer that repeatedly rejects annual leave requests over several years may face serious difficulty defending a labour claim. The legal importance of the 2-year restriction is central here. If the employee was effectively prevented from using accrued leave for more than 2 consecutive years, and there is no valid evidence that the employee chose carry-forward or opted for cash compensation in accordance with policy and the Executive Regulation, the employer’s position is materially weakened. In such disputes, the internal record of leave applications, management rejections, approval delays, staffing explanations, and written employee elections becomes critical.

The third category concerns forfeiture clauses. Some contracts and handbooks still state that unused annual leave automatically lapses at the end of the year or after a short internal carry-forward period. Under the current federal framework, that type of clause requires careful scrutiny. It is not safe to assume that a broad internal forfeiture provision will override statutory leave rights where the accumulation resulted from employer refusal, operational deferral, understaffing, or administrative inaction. A more defensible compliance structure is one in which the employer gives proper notice, offers a real opportunity to use the leave, documents the employee’s choice, and records any agreed carry-forward or cash conversion in a manner consistent with Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022.

The fourth category concerns part-time work arrangements. Article 18 of Cabinet Resolution No. (1) of 2022 adopts a formulaic method for annual leave of workers operating under the part-time model, based on actual working hours converted into working days. These disputes are particularly common in multinational operations that import foreign templates without aligning them to the UAE’s regulatory method. Where part-time annual leave is challenged, the decisive question is often not a broad principle of law but whether the employer’s calculation method can be reconciled with the formula stated in Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022.

Where an annual leave dispute cannot be resolved internally, the mainland route begins with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. Under Article 54, the Ministry must resolve the dispute by a resolution where the claim does not exceed AED 50,000, or where the dispute concerns non-compliance with a prior amicable settlement resolution issued by the Ministry. Any party may challenge that resolution before the competent Court of First Instance within 15 working days from notification or announcement. In other cases, if amicable settlement is not possible within the period specified by the Executive Regulation, the Ministry refers the dispute to the competent court with a memorandum summarising the dispute, the parties’ arguments, and the Ministry’s recommendation. In that setting, the most important documents usually include the employment contract, salary records, leave requests, leave approvals, carry-forward records, policy documents, and the final settlement statement. Employers who treat annual leave as an informal administrative matter often discover too late that they cannot adequately prove lawful compliance. Employees who fail to preserve written approvals or settlement records may likewise face evidential difficulty. In annual leave disputes, documentation is not merely supportive; it is often determinative.

For employees and employers facing broader salary, leave, or termination disputes—including unique cases such as stranded employees working remotely from abroad—please see our dedicated guidance on UAE labour law obligations concerning salary, leave, and remote work for stranded employees.

Practical legal conclusions for employers, employees, and multinational businesses

The current UAE labour law annual leave framework is clear in its principal features. As of 20 June 2026, the governing private-sector legislation remains Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Concerning the Regulation of Labour Relations, as amended, together with Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 Concerning the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Regulating Labour Relations. The UAE Government’s official annual leave guidance, updated on 6 October 2025, continues to reflect the operative legal position for private-sector employment. An employee who has completed more than 6 months but less than 1 year of service is entitled to 2 days of annual leave for each month of service. After completion of 1 full year of service, the employee is entitled to 30 days of fully paid annual leave per year. Part-time workers are entitled on a pro-rated basis according to actual working hours under the Executive Regulation. Public holidays and rest days established by law or agreement are included within the annual leave period if they fall during it, unless the employment contract or establishment regulations provide a more favourable benefit to the worker. On termination, unused annual leave must be paid on the basis of basic salary.

For employers and human resources departments, the most important compliance lesson is that annual leave is a regulated statutory right, not a discretionary operational benefit. Every employer should therefore review contracts, handbooks, payroll settings, leave accrual engines, part-time arrangements, final settlement templates, and historical carry-forward practices against the current federal regime. Particular attention should be given to the 1-month notice requirement where the employer schedules leave and to the statutory rule that an employee may not be prevented from using accrued leave for more than 2 consecutive years unless valid carry-forward or cash arrangements have been agreed in accordance with policy and the Executive Regulation. In many organisations, the greatest risk lies not in the text of the policy but in the mismatch between the policy, payroll treatment, and actual managerial practice.

For employees, the practical lesson is equally important. Leave balances should be checked carefully, approved leave should be retained in writing, final settlements should be reviewed against the last basic salary and actual accrued leave, and assumptions based on foreign labour systems should be avoided. An employee should not assume that the human resources system balance is necessarily legally accurate, should not assume that public holidays automatically extend annual leave, and should not overlook the right to pro-rated leave for the incomplete final year of service. For multinational businesses, the key point is that foreign annual leave assumptions cannot safely be transplanted into the United Arab Emirates without legal verification.

In a labour market where regulatory compliance, workforce retention, cross-border operations, and documentary accountability have become increasingly sophisticated, annual leave remains one of the clearest indicators of whether an employer truly understands the practical operation of UAE private-sector employment law. A compliant annual leave regime is not merely a matter of policy wording. It is evidence of disciplined governance, accurate payroll administration, sound contractual drafting, and respect for the statutory rights the current UAE labour framework protects.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much annual leave am I entitled to under UAE Labour Law?

After completing 6 months but less than 1 year, you are entitled to 2 days per month. After 1 full year of service, you receive 30 days of fully paid annual leave per year (for full-time employees), usually counted as calendar days.

 

Are annual leave entitlements calculated using working days or calendar days?

The federal standard is calendar days, so weekends and public holidays within leave generally count as annual leave days, unless contract or company policy grants a more favourable calculation.

 

If I leave my job, how is payment for unused leave calculated?

Payment for unused annual leave on termination is calculated using basic salary (not total salary or allowances) for all unused leave, including pro-rata for the partial final year.

 

Can my employer refuse to grant annual leave or require it to be carried forward?

Employers may set timing for operational needs but cannot prevent you from taking leave for more than 2 consecutive years without your agreement to carry forward or receive cash, in line with policy and regulations.

 

What if a public holiday falls during my annual leave?

Under the law, public holidays or weekends falling within annual leave do not extend or pause your annual leave unless your contract or company policy says otherwise.

 

Are part-time employees entitled to annual leave?

Yes. Part-time workers are entitled to annual leave calculated according to actual working hours, with a minimum of 5 working days per year. The calculation method is set out in Article 18 of Cabinet Resolution No. (1) of 2022.

 

Does annual leave accrue during my probation period?

Article 29 permits the employer to agree to grant the worker leave from the worker’s annual leave balance during the probation period. If the worker does not pass probation, the worker retains the right to compensation for the remainder of the annual leave balance.

 

If my employer’s policy says leave is forfeited at year-end, is that legal?

No. Where an employee is prevented from using leave because of employer refusal or operational needs, statutory restrictions apply. A blanket forfeiture clause does not override minimum rights under UAE law. In fact a forfeiture clause must be assessed against Article 29 and Article 19 of Cabinet Resolution No. (1) of 2022. The employer may not prevent the worker from benefiting from annual leave for more than 2 years unless the worker wishes to carry it forward or obtain cash allowance in accordance with the establishment regulations and the Executive Regulation. The worker may carry forward no more than half of the annual leave to the following year or agree with the employer to receive its cash equivalent.

 

What should I do if I believe my annual leave rights have been violated?

Gather written documents (contracts, payroll, leave requests, approvals) and start by contacting the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. If unresolved, disputes may be escalated to UAE labour courts.

 

Where can I check the official legal sources?

The two main sources are Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, as amended, and Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, along with the official UAE government annual leave guidance.