Maternity Leave in the UAE: What the Law Provides

Maternity leave in the UAE private sector is 60 days: the first 45 on full pay and the following 15 on half pay. There is no minimum service requirement, and the leave can begin up to 30 days before the expected delivery date.

The entitlement sits in Article 30 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations, which replaced the 1980 law and substantially expanded what had been a 45 day entitlement conditional on a year of service. The public sector and the two financial free zones run separate regimes, and they are more generous, so the first question is always which law applies to your employer.

How much maternity leave does the UAE private sector give?

Sixty calendar days in total. The split is 45 days at full wage followed by 15 days at half wage. These are calendar days, not working days, which is a common point of confusion for people comparing the UAE with European entitlements.

The employee chooses when the leave starts, and it may begin up to 30 days before the expected date of delivery. Many women take a short period before the birth and the balance after, but the law does not force a particular split.

Maternity leave does not consume annual leave. Annual leave continues to accrue, the period counts towards length of service for gratuity purposes, and the employee can take accrued annual leave immediately after maternity leave if the employer agrees.

There is no minimum service requirement. Under the 1980 law, full pay depended on completing a year of service, and a woman with less service received half pay. The current law removed that condition. An employee who gives birth in her first months with an employer receives the same 45 plus 15 structure as a long-serving colleague.

Probation does not remove the entitlement either. A woman on probation who is pregnant is protected in the same way as any other employee.

What extra leave is available if mother or baby is unwell?

The law provides for two further situations beyond the basic 60 days:

• Illness arising from pregnancy or delivery. Where a medical certificate shows the employee cannot return to work because of an illness connected to the pregnancy or the birth, she may take up to 45 additional days without pay. This can be taken continuously or in separate blocks.
• A child born sick or with a disability. Where the child needs continuous care, the law provides a further period of paid leave, with the option of an additional unpaid extension on top. Medical evidence is required.

The law also addresses loss of the child after a stated stage of pregnancy, so a woman in that situation is not left without an entitlement. Because the wording here matters and is easy to paraphrase wrongly, check the current text of Article 30 for the exact periods and conditions before relying on them.

What are the nursing break rules?

For six months following the date of delivery, an employee is entitled to one or two paid breaks each day to nurse her child, with the combined duration capped at one hour. The breaks are additional to normal rest periods and are paid.

The employer cannot require these to be made up at the end of the day, and cannot deduct for them. In practice most employers agree a pattern in advance, for example a later start or an earlier finish, which is permissible if both sides agree.

Can an employer dismiss a woman who is pregnant or on maternity leave?

Not for that reason. The law prohibits terminating an employee, or serving notice of termination, because she is pregnant, because she is on maternity leave, or because of absence connected to it. It also protects her pay and position on return, so she should come back to the same job or an equivalent one on no less favourable terms.

This is not an absolute bar on dismissal. A genuine redundancy or a genuine performance or misconduct process can still proceed, but the burden on the employer to show the real reason is heavy, and the timing will be scrutinised. Dismissals that land during or shortly after maternity leave are among the more winnable employment claims in the UAE.

Where a woman believes she has been dismissed for a prohibited reason, the route is a complaint to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, then to the courts. The limitation period for employment claims was extended to two years from the end of the relationship by Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2024.

How do the public sector, DIFC and ADGM differ?

Federal government employees are covered by the federal human resources law rather than the employment law, and the entitlement is more generous: 90 days on full pay, with paid nursing breaks of up to two hours a day for six months after delivery. Individual emirates run their own government human resources legislation, so an employee of a Dubai or Abu Dhabi government entity should check that emirate’s rules rather than the federal ones.

The DIFC applies its own employment law. Maternity leave there runs to 65 days, structured as a period at full pay followed by a period at reduced pay, and unlike the onshore position it carries a qualifying service requirement. ADGM operates its own employment regulations again, with its own entitlement. Both have been amended in recent years, so check the current text of the relevant free zone law rather than assuming parity with the federal position.

Most other free zones, including the large commercial and logistics zones, apply the federal employment law, so the 45 plus 15 structure applies in the ordinary way.

What about paternity and parental leave?

Onshore, the law provides parental leave of five working days, available to either parent, to be taken within six months of the birth. It is paid, and it can be taken continuously or in separate days. The UAE was among the first countries in the region to legislate for parental leave available to fathers on the same footing.

The public sector and the financial free zones set their own paternity entitlements, and some employers offer more than the statutory minimum as a matter of policy. Enhanced contractual entitlements are enforceable as contract terms even where they exceed the legal floor.

What do people get wrong?

Four things recur. Treating the 60 days as working days rather than calendar days. Assuming the old one year service condition still applies, when it was removed in 2022. Allowing an employer to pay in lieu of maternity leave, which is not what the law provides. And failing to give notice and medical evidence in the form the employer’s policy requires, which gives the employer an administrative argument it should not have.

On the employer side, the recurring error is running a restructuring while someone is on maternity leave and assuming the ordinary termination rules apply unchanged. They do not, and the evidential burden is real.

This is general information about UAE employment law as at September 2026, not legal advice. The position varies by emirate and free zone and changes often. Take advice on your own facts.

Legal Desire has published legal industry news and analysis since 2012. This article is part of our UAE desk, which tracks the laws, courts and regulators of the Emirates for lawyers and in-house teams.