Sick Leave Under UAE Labour Law: Your Rights

An employee in the UAE onshore private sector who has completed probation is entitled to up to 90 days of sick leave in each year of service: the first 15 days on full pay, the next 30 on half pay and the remaining 45 unpaid. There is no entitlement to paid sick leave during probation.

The entitlement sits in Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations, at Article 31, with further detail in Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. The 90 days can be taken continuously or in separate periods across the year. The Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market apply their own rules, and work related injury and occupational disease are dealt with under a separate regime, both covered below.

How much sick leave does UAE labour law give you?

Up to 90 days per year of service, once probation has been completed. The pay structure is tiered:

• Days 1 to 15: full wage
• Days 16 to 45: half wage
• Days 46 to 90: unpaid

The days do not have to be consecutive. An employee who takes scattered days across the year draws them from the same 90 day pool, and moves down the tiers as the total accumulates. That is why employers need to count sick days across the whole year rather than treating each absence separately.

The entitlement is a statutory minimum. A contract or staff handbook can be more generous, and a number of larger employers do offer a longer period on full pay. A contract cannot give less.

What are the sick leave rules during probation?

There is no paid sick leave during probation. An employee who falls ill during the probation period can be granted unpaid sick leave, but only at the employer’s discretion and on production of a medical report from an approved medical entity showing that the leave is necessary.

Two points follow. First, an employer is not obliged to agree, although refusing without reason where genuine medical evidence has been provided is a poor position to be in if the matter is later disputed. Second, and separately, an employer cannot serve notice of termination while an employee is on sick leave, and that protection is not switched off by the fact that the employee is still on probation.

How quickly must you tell your employer, and what evidence is needed?

The employee must notify the employer of the illness within a maximum of three days, and must submit a medical report on their condition issued by the medical entity.

Practical guidance for employees:

• Notify in writing, or at least confirm a phone call in writing the same day, so that the date of notification is recorded.
• Get the certificate from a licensed medical provider. A note from a pharmacy or an unlicensed clinic is likely to be challenged.
• If the illness happens abroad, expect the employer to ask for the certificate to be attested. Build in time for that.

For employers, the corresponding point is to say in the staff handbook who the notification goes to and in what form. Disputes about sick leave very often turn on whether the employee told anyone, and a policy that names a recipient removes the argument.

When can sick pay be refused?

The law sets out circumstances where paid sick leave is not available. These include:

• Sickness during the probation period, as above
• Illness resulting from the employee’s own misconduct, with the consumption of alcohol or narcotics specifically identified
• Illness arising from the employee’s breach of workplace safety rules, whether under the applicable legislation or the employer’s own instructions

An employer relying on one of these grounds should be able to evidence it. A general assertion that the employee was at fault will not carry a claim, and the burden of showing the exception applies falls on the employer in practice.

Can you be dismissed while on sick leave?

Not during the sick leave itself. An employer may not dismiss an employee, or serve notice of termination, while the employee is on sick leave. This is one of the clearer protections in the Labour Law.

The position changes once the 90 days are exhausted. Where the employee has used the full entitlement and has not returned to work, the employer may terminate the employment, and the employee keeps their end of service entitlements. An employee may also resign during sick leave where the employer agrees and their dues are settled.

The interaction between sick leave and a notice period already running is a more difficult area and depends on the facts, including when the notice was served and what the contract says. It is a common source of dispute and worth taking advice on rather than assuming.

How do DIFC, ADGM and work injuries differ?

The financial free zones have separate employment statutes with different numbers.

• DIFC. Under DIFC Employment Law No. 2 of 2019 the entitlement is up to 60 working days of sick leave a year, with the first 10 working days at full pay, the next 20 at half pay and the remaining 30 unpaid.
• ADGM. The ADGM Employment Regulations 2024, in force from 1 April 2025, set their own sick leave and sick pay rules. Employees on probation are entitled to sick leave but not to sick pay.
• Work injury and occupational disease. These are not treated as ordinary sickness. Where an employee suffers a work injury or an occupational disease, the employer is responsible for treatment costs and the employee is entitled to compensation and to pay during the treatment period under the separate work injury provisions, not the 15, 30 and 45 day tiers.

Health insurance is a related but distinct obligation. Mandatory schemes have operated in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for years, and a basic health insurance scheme covering private sector employees and domestic workers in the northern emirates has since been introduced. Employers should check what applies at their place of business rather than assuming a single national rule.

Where do people get caught out?

The most common employer mistake is stopping pay too early, usually by treating the first 15 days as the whole entitlement and putting the employee on nil pay from day 16 rather than half pay. The second is dismissing an employee who is signed off, which is expressly prohibited and turns a manageable situation into a claim.

On the employee side, the recurring problem is evidence. Late notification, no written record of the call, or a certificate from a provider the employer does not accept will undermine an otherwise genuine absence. Notify within the three day window, in writing, and keep the medical report.

Both sides should also watch the accounting across the leave year. Intermittent absences that are individually short can quietly move an employee into the half pay or unpaid tiers, and neither party usually notices until a payslip is wrong. A simple running total prevents the argument.

Any fee payable for filing a labour complaint with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, or for issuing proceedings in court, is set by the relevant authority and changes from time to time. Check the current schedule.

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

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.