Sick Leave in UAE Labour Law: Your Rights and Pay Rules

If you are unwell and employed in the UAE private sector, your employer must grant you sick leave, and the uae labour law for sick leave sets out exactly how much you are owed and when. The rules come from Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, and the headline numbers are simple: up to 90 days per year of service, structured as 15 days at full pay, 30 days at half pay, and 45 days unpaid.

How Sick Leave Works Under UAE Labour Law: The 90-Day Structure in Plain English

Most guides stop at the three numbers. The part that actually decides your case is how those numbers fit inside the 90-day leave year. That is where disputes begin — and where a little clarity saves everyone a trip to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE).

The federal framework applies to private-sector employees. Article 31 of the Labour Law is the key provision on notification and medical evidence, while the pay tiers sit in the Executive Regulations. Public-sector staff, domestic workers, and free zone employees sit under separate regimes, so confirm which one governs your contract before you count days. Our article on Requirements to Start a Business in the UAE as a Non-Resident explains how those different jurisdictions sit side by side for business owners.

The core entitlement is straightforward: up to 90 days of sick leave per year of service, whether taken continuously or intermittently, once the employee has completed the probationary period. (UAE Government Portal)

Those 90 days split into three pay stages:

• Days 1–15: full pay
• Days 16–45: half pay
• Days 46–90: no pay

This is confirmed in the same official guidance, which states sick leave is “full pay for the first 15 days, half pay for the next 30 days, no pay for the remaining 45 days.” (UAE Government Portal)

It is a yearly pot, not a per-illness allowance

This is the detail people miss. The 90 days is not reset each time you fall ill. It is one bucket that refills with each year of service. Three separate absences of 10 days each — a bad flu in January, a minor procedure in May, a chest infection in October — consume 30 days of the same pot. You still have 60 left, but your next 15 paid days have already been partly used. Track the cumulative total, not the individual episode.

A worked example

Picture an employee (hypothetically, for illustration) who is signed off for 60 continuous days:

The employee still has 30 unused days in the annual pot, all of which would be unpaid if taken, because the paid tiers are already exhausted.

Keep the leave categories separate

Sick leave is not annual leave. It is not maternity leave, which is 60 days. It is not compassionate leave. It is not parental or study leave. Each is a distinct entitlement with its own rules, and employers should track each as a separate balance.

[Editorial image placeholder: a simple diagram showing the 90-day sick leave year splitting into 15 / 30 / 45 pay stages]

Full Pay, Half Pay, No Pay: A Stage-by-Stage Salary Breakdown

Understanding what “pay” means in practice prevents the most common payroll argument. In most contracts, the calculation is based on the employee’s contractual pay as stated in the employment contract. Read your own contract before assuming what the base figure is.

Stage 1 — Days 1 to 15: full pay

The employee receives normal salary for these days. Deducting anything here is a compliance error, and it is one of the easiest mistakes for an employee to spot on a payslip.

Stage 2 — Days 16 to 45: half pay

Half of the contractual pay applies. For a fixed monthly salary, that usually means 50% of the monthly figure for each day of absence in this window.

Stage 3 — Days 46 to 90: unpaid

These days are unpaid leave. The employment relationship continues, but no salary is due for the absence itself.

A hypothetical 90-day absence

If an employee is absent for the full 90 days, the cumulative impact is: 15 days paid in full, 30 days at half pay, and 45 days unpaid. Roughly speaking, that works out to about one third of the 90-day period at full value, one third at half value, and one third at no value.

Why intermittent leave stretches the same pot

An employee who takes five days every few weeks will not hit stage 2 for months. But the pot keeps draining. The correct method is to maintain a running total of sick days consumed within the current year of service, then apply the tiers to the cumulative figure — not to each absence separately. Spreadsheet logic: a single cumulative-days column, with a formula that returns full, half, or no pay depending on the running total.

What happens on day 91?

If the employee still cannot work after exhausting all 90 days, the employer may terminate the service. The employee remains entitled to end-of-service benefits in line with the Labour Law. (UAE Government Portal)

Salary figures and tier calculations should always be verified against the current Executive Regulations text before you rely on them for a payroll decision.

Notice Rules and Medical Certificates: What Employees Must Do (and Employers Should Require)

The pay tiers matter. The paperwork decides whether you get them.

Under Article 31, the employee must notify the employer of the sickness within a maximum of three days, and submit a medical report on the condition issued by a licensed medical entity. (UAE Government Portal)

An acceptable medical report in the UAE normally comes from a facility recognised under MOHAP, the Dubai Health Authority, or the Department of Health Abu Dhabi. Telemedicine consultations can produce valid sick notes where the provider is licensed to issue them — check the issuing entity, not just the document.

A WhatsApp message saying “I’m sick today” is notification. It is not a medical report. Self-certification is not a substitute for one. Employees should assume the report will be requested and obtain it at the time of illness, not weeks later.

For employers, the fix is simple and it prevents almost every dispute in this area: put the notification window, the accepted documentation, and the channel for submitting it in writing — in the employment contract or the staff handbook — and make sure new joiners actually read it.

What Happens If You Don’t Have a Medical Certificate?

An absence without a valid medical report is generally treated as unauthorised absence, not sick leave. The two are handled very differently.

The practical consequences can include unpaid absence, loss of the sick-leave pay entitlement for those days, and disciplinary action under the company’s internal policy. In some circumstances, unauthorised absence can be grounds for termination — this is a real risk, though it depends on the facts, the internal policy, and how the absence is documented, so it should not be treated as automatic.

The fix for employees is unglamorous but effective: get the medical documentation when you are ill, and submit it inside the three-day window.

For employers, document everything — the dates of absence, how and when the notification arrived, any follow-ups you made, and the reasoning behind the final decision. A dispute with no paper trail is far harder to defend than one with a clear chronology.

Can You Be Fired While on Sick Leave? Termination and End-of-Service Rights

No — not while you are on approved sick leave. An employer may not dismiss an employee or serve a termination notice during that period. (UAE Government Portal)

There is one clear boundary. If the employee uses all 90 days and still cannot report to work, the employer may terminate the services. Even then, the employee is entitled to end-of-service benefits in accordance with the Labour Law. (UAE Government Portal)

That is different from termination for reasons unrelated to the illness — for example, genuine redundancy, restructuring, or performance or conduct issues handled through the correct process. The protection covers the sick leave itself, not every possible termination scenario.

If you receive a termination notice while on approved sick leave, keep everything: the notice, your medical reports, your notification messages, and your payslips. Then use the official channels. For private-sector disputes, that means MOHRE. Employees in a free zone should go to the relevant free zone authority. Termination without notice under Article 80 is a separate topic with its own rules, and it should be verified against the current law before anyone acts on it.

[Editorial image placeholder: an employee submitting a medical certificate to an HR representative]

Does Sick Leave Apply During Probation, and What About Free Zones?

This is where the answer changes depending on who you are and where you work.

During probation

The 90-day entitlement applies after the employee completes the probationary period. Someone in their first months of employment has not yet earned it. In practice, sick leave during probation is usually handled under the company’s internal policy or deducted from annual leave. Employers who want to avoid arguments here should state the position clearly in the offer letter and the handbook rather than leaving it to the first absence.

An employer is not necessarily obliged to provide full sick pay before the entitlement has been earned, but the exact position should be verified against the current rules and the individual contract.

In free zones

DIFC and ADGM operate their own employment regulations, which may differ from the federal Labour Law. A company licensed in one of these zones follows that zone’s rules, not the federal default. If you are unsure which regime applies, check directly with the relevant free zone authority. If you are still choosing a jurisdiction, our guide to Which Abu Dhabi Free Zone Is Right for Your Business? walks through how the different zones are structured. You can also link your HR framework to wider business decisions — see How Long Does It Take to Set Up a Company in Dubai? for the setup timeline context.

Leave categories at a glance

Track each type in its own balance. Mixed balances are how payroll errors start.

Can an Employer Require You to Use Annual Leave Instead of Sick Leave?

Requiring an employee to burn annual leave for a genuine, documented illness carries real compliance risk. The sick leave entitlement exists precisely so that illness is handled under the correct category. Employers should treat the two as separate, and employees should ask for the illness to be recorded as sick leave when they have a valid medical report.

Sick leave also interacts with public holidays and weekly rest days. Employers should apply the same approach consistently and document how each absence was categorised, rather than deciding case by case.

For SMEs without a full HR system, a simple register works: a spreadsheet with columns for employee name, leave type, start date, end date, days consumed, medical report received (yes/no), and running total within the current year of service. It takes minutes to maintain and settles most disputes before they escalate.

How Employers Get It Wrong: 7 Common Compliance Mistakes

1. No written policy. If the notification window and accepted documents are not written anywhere, every absence becomes a negotiation.
2. Paying the wrong tier. Docking salary in the first 15 days is a straightforward error and easy for an employee to challenge.
3. Terminating during sick leave. Issuing a termination notice while an employee is on approved sick leave is not permitted.
4. Losing count of the 90 days. Multiple absences across the year must be added together against the same pot.
5. Accepting informal notification. A message is not a medical report. Ask for the document.
6. Treating federal law and DIFC/ADGM rules as interchangeable. They are not. Confirm which regime governs the contract.
7. Ignoring record-keeping until a dispute arises. MOHRE complaint exposure grows quietly without a documentation trail.

Employee Rights vs Employer Obligations: A Quick Decision Framework

If you are an employee:

1. Confirm whether you have completed your probationary period.
2. Notify your employer within three days of falling ill.
3. Obtain a medical report from a licensed medical entity.
4. Log the dates of every sick leave day, continuously or intermittently.
5. Check your payslip against the 15/30/45 tiers.
6. If something is wrong, raise it internally first, then escalate to MOHRE for private-sector matters — or your free zone authority if you are in a free zone.

If you are an employer:

1. Put a written sick leave policy in the contract or handbook.
2. Define what medical documentation you accept.
3. Set a clear notification channel and a named contact.
4. Maintain a running 90-day tracker per employee.
5. Never issue termination during approved sick leave.
6. Document every absence from notification to decision.

When a dispute moves beyond a straightforward internal conversation, a PRO or an HR consultant can often resolve it faster than handling it in-house. Getting your HR and PRO processes right is a core part of running a compliant UAE business — and it sits alongside the financial side, including American Banks in the UAE: Which One Fits Your Business? and Business Loan in UAE: How to Fund Your Company in 2026 when you need to plan cash flow against payroll obligations.

Getting Your HR and PRO Processes Right: Where Al Ain Business Center Can Help

If you recognise your business in this list, you are not alone — and you are not in trouble yet:

• There is no written leave policy in your contract or handbook.
• Payroll errors keep recurring around leave.
• Absences are piling up with no documentation trail.
• Nobody can say how many sick days a given employee has used this year of service.

A clean HR framework — properly drafted contracts, a staff handbook, a leave tracker, and payroll mapped to the correct pay tiers — reduces disputes before they ever reach MOHRE. It also makes your business easier to run, easier to audit, and easier to scale.

We support UAE businesses with company setup, trade licence renewals, visa processing, PRO services, and accounting and auditing support. If you are deciding how to structure your company, our Arabic-language guide to معنى شركة ذات مسؤولية محدودة في الإمارات: دليل شامل and our breakdown of تكلفة رخصة التجارة العامة في دبي سنوياً بالتفصيل cover the fundamentals.

To be clear about our role: we are not a law firm and we do not provide legal advice. For a specific dispute, we can point you toward the right resources and the correct escalation channel.

Based in Dubai (Al Qusais), we work with entrepreneurs, SMEs, and free zone companies across the UAE.

Your next step: book a free consultation to review your current HR and PRO setup. We will identify the gaps in your leave policy, documentation, and payroll mapping — so the next sick leave request is handled correctly, first time.