We all know that employees working in the UAE are entitled to an annual leave. But how are the leave days being determined and what benefits are they entitled to receive? The answers can be found in Articles 75-80 of Federal Law 8 of 1980 commonly referred to as the Labour Law.
Related Article: How to Compute End of Service Gratuity in Accordance with UAE Labour Law
Determination of Annual Leave days Entitlement
Article 75 states that an employee shall be given a minimum of two (2) days paid leave every month for period of service of at least six (6) months and a year at most, and thirty (30) days of each year for a period of service exceeding one year.
Who should determine the Period of Annual Leave?
In Article 76, the employer has given the right determine the start of annual leave and may divide it if necessary to two or more periods. Official holidays specified by law or by agreement, or leave due to sickness shall be deemed part of the annual leave if it falls within the same period as stated in Article 77.
Annual Leave Air Ticket Allowance
Providing air ticket to employees is not mandatory and is purely contractual in nature. Meaning, you are not entitled to an air ticket allowance unless agreed upon in the labor contract.
Leave Salary
Though most of the companies in the UAE are giving full salary during annual leave, the labour law (as provided in Article 78) only requires basic salary and housing allowance. If labor contract explicitly states that annual leave salary should include all the regular allowances granted by the employer then the employee is eligible for the full salary.Moreover, leave salary should be given in addition to the entire wage due prior to annual leave in accordance with Article 80.
In circumstance where the employee is required to work during his annual leave and the days of work are not carried forward, the employer must pay basic salary for the days of work in addition to leave allowance.
In addition, Article 79 states that in case of termination and resignation(after the duly determined notice period) the employee is entitled to any sums for the accrued leave days calculated on the basis of basic salary excluding housing and other allowances at the time when the leave is due.
Brief Summary
References
UAE Ministry of Human Resource and Emiratisation.,"Laws and Regulations",
The United Arab Emirates' Government Portal., "Annual Leave",
Gulfnews(July 12, 2016)., "UAE Labour Law: 7 things to know about your annual leave"
Trench & Associates., "Annual Leave"
Help us Grow! Please Like and Share our facebook page.
0 Comments