Mainland, free zone, DIFC or ADGM?

Who the labour law covers

The law “shall apply to all Establishments, Employers and Workers in the Private Sector in the State” (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, Article 3(1)).

Gratuity under Article 51 is for foreign workers in full-time jobs. Part-time and other work patterns are covered further down.

Who it leaves out

Article 3(2) says these groups are “not subject to the provisions” of the law:

• employees of federal and local government agencies;
• members of the armed forces, police and security;
• domestic workers.

Each of these has its own rules, so our calculator doesn’t give them a number.

UAE and GCC nationals

For UAE nationals, the law says end-of-service gratuity is “in accordance with the legislation regulating pensions and social security” (Article 51(1)), not the calculation in the rest of Article 51.

Nationals of other GCC countries may be covered by pension arrangements between GCC states. We haven’t confirmed this yet, so our calculator doesn’t give them a number either.

Free zones

Article 3 doesn’t mention free zones either way. The government’s official guidance on the savings scheme says that scheme applies to “employers and employees in the private sector and free zones”. We haven’t yet read the law text on free zones, though, so treat this as still being checked.

DIFC and ADGM

The Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market are financial free zones that run their own employment rules, with different end-of-service terms. We’re still confirming this against the law text. Our calculator doesn’t give a number for these jobs, because it would likely be wrong.

Part-time and other work patterns

For “work types other than full-time”, the law leaves the details to its executive regulations (Article 52).

The executive regulations set it out: part-time gratuity is a share of the full-time amount. The share is your contract’s yearly working hours divided by full-time yearly hours. There’s no gratuity on a temporary work model, or if the work lasts less than a year (Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 30). Our calculator covers full-time, monthly-paid jobs only for now.

Employers in the savings scheme

The law lets the Cabinet approve “other alternative systems for the end-of-service gratuity system” (Article 51(8)). If your employer has moved you into the savings scheme, read the savings scheme guide.