Statutory sick pay in the United Arab Emirates: the employer process
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Sick pay in the UAE is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33/2021, not a separate statutory sick pay scheme. Under that law, an employee who has completed their probation period is entitled to up to 90 days of sick leave per year, paid on a sliding scale.
Who qualifies
The entitlement applies only once an employee has passed their probationary period. Probation cannot exceed six months under UAE labour law. An employee who falls ill during probation has no statutory right to paid sick leave — you may choose to pay voluntarily, but you are not legally required to do so.
Domestic workers are covered by a separate law (Federal Law No. 10/2017) and have different entitlements, so the process below applies to private-sector employees under the standard employment framework.
The 90-day entitlement and how pay is calculated
Once probation is complete, a sick employee is entitled to up to 90 days per year. Those 90 days are split into three bands:
- First 15 days: full pay
- Next 30 days: half pay
- Remaining 45 days: unpaid
The year resets annually, not per illness episode. So if an employee uses 10 sick days in the first half of the year and falls ill again later, they still have 80 days of entitlement remaining in that year.
Pay during sick leave is based on the employee's basic wage plus any allowances that form part of their normal remuneration — check the employment contract to confirm what is included.
The employer process, step by step
1. Receive and verify the medical certificate
The employee must notify you of their illness and provide a medical certificate from a recognised medical practitioner or an approved health facility. There is no prescribed timeframe in the law for how quickly notification must be given, but your internal HR policy should set a clear expectation — most UAE employers require notice within the first day of absence and a certificate within two days of absence beginning.
2. Record the absence type correctly
Log the absence in your payroll and HR records as sick leave, not annual leave or unpaid leave. This matters for WPS (Wage Protection System) compliance. If you later process a month where sick leave pay is at half rate or zero, the variation from the employee's normal wage must be reconcilable against the recorded absence.
3. Apply the correct pay band
Track cumulative sick days taken in the year. For each payroll run that falls during a sick period, calculate whether the employee is in the first-15, next-30 or remaining-45 band. If sick leave spans a payroll period where the band changes mid-period, split the calculation accordingly and document it.
4. Process through WPS as normal
Sick leave pay — whether full, half or nil — must still be processed through WPS by the standard payment deadline (the last working day of the month or per your agreed cycle). Where pay is reduced to half, process the reduced amount. Where the employee has moved into the unpaid band, you submit a zero-salary transfer for that month or make no transfer if no other pay is due — your WPS provider or payroll platform can advise on the correct file format for a nil period.
5. Maintain a written record
Keep the medical certificate and the absence record on file. The UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) can audit employment records, and a well-documented sick leave history protects you in the event of a dispute or a MOHRE complaint.
Dismissal during sick leave
You may not dismiss an employee while they are on sick leave for a period not exceeding 90 days. Once the 90-day entitlement is exhausted, the law permits termination if the employee is still unable to return to work. If you do proceed with termination at that point, the employee is still entitled to all other accrued entitlements: outstanding wages, any accrued annual leave pay, and end-of-service gratuity calculated at 21 days' basic wage per year for the first five years of service and 30 days per year thereafter, capped at two years' total pay.
Interaction with annual leave
An employee cannot run annual leave and sick leave simultaneously. If an employee falls ill while on annual leave and can provide a medical certificate, the days of illness should in principle be reclassified as sick leave and the annual leave days restored — though this is an area where your employment contract wording matters. Clarity in the contract reduces disputes later.
Sick leave and the gratuity calculation
Unpaid sick leave days (the final 45 of the 90-day entitlement) do not break continuity of service for gratuity purposes. Service continues to accrue throughout the sick leave period, which means the gratuity calculation is not interrupted by even an extended illness.
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