Insights Payroll
Maternity Leave UAE 2026: The 60-Day Rule and How to Post It Through Payroll
Maternity leave UAE labour law under Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 — 45 days full pay, 15 half pay, salary calculation, gratuity accrual and MoHRE documents.
Key takeaways
- 60 calendar days total maternity leave — 45 days full pay plus 15 days half pay — no minimum service requirement
- Premature birth, miscarriage after 6 months, sick child trigger additional leave entitlements under Article 30 of the Employment Law
- Gratuity continues to accrue during the full and half-pay portions — basic salary is the accrual base, not the reduced cash payment
- Nursing breaks — Article 30(9) gives one or two breaks a day, together not exceeding one hour, for six months from delivery
- Termination during pregnancy or maternity leave is restricted — wrongful dismissal exposure runs three months' wages plus reinstatement risk
- Sick leave overlap rules give an additional 45 days of sick leave for pregnancy-related illness on top of the 60-day maternity entitlement
Maternity leave in the UAE under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 gives private-sector female employees a clear baseline. 60 calendar days of leave, 45 at full pay and 15 at half pay, irrespective of length of service. The headline is easy. The implementation is where SME employers slip: payroll posting, gratuity accrual continuation, sick-leave overlap, return-to-work nursing breaks and the documentation an MoHRE inspection or wrongful-dismissal claim will request. Getting the 45-and-15 split, gratuity continuation and SIF file right every cycle is exactly what clean payroll and WPS processing in Dubai is for.
This guide is for founders, HR managers and finance directors of UAE SMEs setting maternity-leave policy in 2026. What the UAE labor law maternity leave rules actually require, where the common errors hide, how to post the leave correctly through payroll, and what documentation to keep on file. The maternity leave UAE labour law position is federal, so maternity leave in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates starts from the same entitlement — what changes between employers is how well the payroll system carries it.
Start with the 60-day federal baseline
Article 30 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 sets the floor. Every private-sector female employee in the UAE, whether on a full-time, part-time, temporary or flexible-work contract, is entitled to 60 calendar days of maternity leave at delivery: 45 at full pay, 15 at half pay.
The entitlement is not service-linked, and this trips people up. An employee who joined three months ago gets the same 60 days as one with ten years behind her. The first 45 days are paid at the registered total salary (basic plus allowances per the contract); the next 15 drop to 50% of total salary.
Free-zone employers operating under their own employment regulations (DIFC, ADGM, DMCC and others) may grant more generous terms (DIFC for example offers 65 working days of maternity leave — 33 at full pay and 32 at half pay) but cannot drop below the federal baseline where federal law applies.
60 calendar days
Total UAE maternity leave entitlement under Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 — 45 days at full pay, 15 days at half pay, no minimum service required
Article 30 clause by clause
Most maternity-leave disputes in UAE SMEs come from reading a summary rather than the clause. Article 30 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 runs to nine sub-clauses, and several of them are the ones handbooks miss entirely.
| Clause | What it provides |
|---|---|
| 30(1)(a) | The first 45 days of the 60-day maternity leave are paid at full wage |
| 30(1)(b) | The following 15 days are paid at half wage |
| 30(2) | After the maternity leave, up to 45 further days of absence without wage, continuous or intermittent, where sickness of the mother or the child resulting from pregnancy or childbirth prevents her return, proven by a medical certificate — and this period is not included in the service term for end-of-service benefits or retirement-scheme contributions |
| 30(3) | The 60-day entitlement applies where delivery took place six months or more into the pregnancy, whether the child was born dead or born alive and then died |
| 30(4) | Where the child is sick or a child of determination whose condition requires a constant companion on a medical report, a further 30 days at full pay after the maternity leave ends, extendable by 30 days without pay |
| 30(5) | The employer must grant the leave on request at any time from the last day of the month immediately preceding the expected month of delivery, proven by a certificate from the medical entity |
| 30(6) | Taking maternity leave or the Article 30 absence does not prejudice the employee’s right to her other leaves |
| 30(7) | If she works for another employer during the leave, the original employer may withhold the wage for the leave period or recover what was paid |
| 30(8) | Service may not be terminated, and notice of termination may not be given, because of the pregnancy, the maternity leave, or an absence under this Article |
| 30(9) | After returning, and for up to six months from delivery, one or two breaks a day to breastfeed the child, the two together not exceeding one hour |
Source: Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations, Article 30, English text. Read 4 August 2026.
The clause that most often surprises a UAE finance team is 30(2). The extra 45 days are unpaid and excluded from the service term for end-of-service benefits — so unlike the 60-day maternity leave, gratuity does not accrue across them. A payroll system that treats every Article 30 absence identically will overstate the gratuity provision.
Clause 30(7) is the one HR teams forget exists. If an employee takes maternity leave and works for another employer during it, the original UAE employer may withhold the wage for that period or recover what has already been paid. It is rarely used, but it belongs in the handbook.
Worked example: one 60-day maternity cycle through UAE payroll
Numbers make the 45-and-15 split concrete, and they show why the gratuity base and the cash paid are two different figures. The salary below is an illustrative figure chosen to make the arithmetic clean — it is not a benchmark or a salary guide.
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Registered total monthly salary | Basic AED 7,200 plus allowances AED 4,800 | AED 12,000 |
| Daily rate used for the leave calculation | AED 12,000 ÷ 30 | AED 400 |
| Days 1 to 45, full wage | 45 × AED 400 | AED 18,000 |
| Days 46 to 60, half wage | 15 × AED 400 × 50% | AED 3,000 |
| Total cash paid across the 60 days | AED 18,000 plus AED 3,000 | AED 21,000 |
| What two ordinary months would have paid | 2 × AED 12,000 | AED 24,000 |
| Cash difference the half-pay block creates | AED 24,000 less AED 21,000 | AED 3,000 |
| Gratuity accrued across the same 60 days | 21 days of basic per year × 60 ÷ 365 × (AED 7,200 ÷ 30) | About AED 828 |
| Annual leave accrued across the same 60 days | 30 days per year × 60 ÷ 365 | About 4.9 days |
Illustrative calculation. Entitlements from Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, Articles 30, 29 and 51. The AED figures are arithmetic for the example only and are not a salary benchmark.
Two lines in that table are where payroll goes wrong. The AED 3,000 half-pay reduction has to appear on the payslip and in the WPS SIF file consistently — the file carries the reduced figure for that cycle, not the contractual salary. And the AED 828 gratuity accrual is calculated on the full basic wage of AED 7,200 a month across all 60 days, including the half-pay block, because Article 30(1)(b) reduces the wage paid and not the contractual wage the end-of-service benefit is built on.
Contrast that with the Article 30(2) absence. If the employee then takes 20 of those unpaid days, the cash is nil, the annual-leave position follows the leave rules, and the gratuity accrual stops for those 20 days because Article 30(2) excludes the period from the service term. Running the two absences through the same leave code is what produces the year-end audit adjustment.
Posting the 45+15 split through payroll
The payroll error pattern is consistent across SMEs running on Excel or generic accounting software not configured for UAE labour law. The leave is processed as a single 60-day block at full pay, missing the half-pay portion entirely. The correction at year-end is awkward, and if the employee leaves within 12 months it becomes a final-settlement dispute.
Here is how a clean posting runs, and it is the whole of the maternity leave calculation in practice. Days 1 to 45 go through WPS or the zone salary-card scheme at the registered total wage, with the basic salary breakdown unchanged and gratuity accruing as normal. Days 46 to 60 drop to 50% of total salary. The salary slip has to show the half-pay basis plainly, the WPS submission still has to be on time, and the SIF file should carry the reduced amount. Throughout both windows gratuity keeps accruing on 100% of basic salary, because the half-pay period cuts the cash payment, not the contractual wage the gratuity is built on. Annual leave carries on accruing at the standard 30-day-per-year rate, prorated across the maternity period.
Document the leave start date, the supporting medical certificate, the planned return date and the actual return date in the HR file. The payroll register should show the 45+15 split clearly, with the WPS or zone submissions traceable to MoHRE confirmation files.
When the 60 days isn’t the whole entitlement
Article 30 of the Employment Law extends maternity protection beyond the 60-day baseline in three specific situations:
- Premature birth, miscarriage after six months, stillbirth — the full 60-day maternity entitlement still applies. The leave is paid as normal (45+15) and the gratuity accrual continues.
- Pregnancy-related sick leave — Article 30(2) allows up to 45 additional days of absence without wage, continuous or intermittent, where the mother’s or the child’s sickness resulting from pregnancy or childbirth prevents her return, proven by a medical certificate from the medical entity. Employment continues, but read the clause to the end: it states expressly that this period is not included within the service term for end-of-service benefits or for retirement-scheme contributions. Gratuity accrual pauses for these days, unlike the 60-day maternity leave itself.
- Sick or determination-status newborn — where the child’s condition requires constant care on a medical report, Article 30(4) grants an additional 30 days at full pay after the maternity leave ends, extendable by a further 30 days unpaid.
These extensions sit on top of the 60-day baseline. SME HR policies frequently miss them — the employee learns about the entitlement from a friend, the request is refused informally, and a wrongful-treatment claim becomes a settlement negotiation.
Parental leave in the UAE is a separate entitlement and it is the one SME handbooks omit most often. Under the same law, a private-sector employee — mother or father — is entitled to five working days of paid parental leave, taken continuously or in blocks within six months of the child’s birth (u.ae, Parental leave; MoHRE). So paternity leave in the UAE does exist, it is paid, and it runs in addition to the mother’s 60 days rather than out of them. Post it as a distinct leave code in payroll — folding it into annual leave is the error that shows up in a final settlement two years later.
Two 30-minute nursing breaks, paid
Article 30(9) entitles the returning employee to one or two breaks a day to breastfeed her child, provided the two breaks together do not exceed one hour, for a period of not more than six months from the date of delivery. Most UAE employers run this as two 30-minute breaks, which is the simplest way to schedule it. The entitlement should not be merged into the standard lunch break — it is a separate right the employee can take within working hours.
For SMEs there are two things to get right. Put the breaks on the employee’s timesheet, usually one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and let her take them flexibly within working hours as operations allow. Then write the entitlement into the return-to-work letter so both sides have it in black and white. That single line heads off the “did you give them their breaks?” argument in any future dispute.
The cost to the employer is minimal: one hour of paid time a day for six months. The cost of getting it wrong is a wrongful-treatment claim where all the evidence sits on the employee’s side. Not a trade worth making.
Why you can’t terminate during pregnancy or leave
Article 30(8) prohibits termination during pregnancy, during maternity leave or for reasons connected to the pregnancy. The clause covers the pregnancy itself, the maternity leave, and any absence taken under Article 30 — and it bars notice of termination on those grounds, not just the termination. Article 30 does not itself set a protected window after the return to work, so a dismissal shortly after return is judged on whether the reason is genuinely unconnected to the pregnancy rather than against a fixed period.
An employer who terminates in violation of Article 30(8) is exposed on several fronts at once. There is wrongful-dismissal compensation of up to three months’ wages under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, reinstatement if the dismissed employee asks for it and the tribunal agrees, MoHRE penalties for the breach itself, and the reputational hit on top, since cases brought against pregnant employees tend to attract attention in the UAE labour market.
The narrow exception is termination for cause unrelated to the pregnancy — proven gross misconduct under Article 44. The evidential burden sits with the employer and tribunals scrutinise the timing carefully. “She was poor performance” delivered three weeks after the maternity-leave notification rarely survives scrutiny.
The cost of writing an MoHRE-aligned maternity-leave policy is zero. The cost of failing to write one — a wrongful-dismissal claim, an MoHRE inspection finding, a settlement payment — is six figures. There is no reason to defer the policy work.
When MoHRE knocks, what they’ll ask for
A standard MoHRE inspection touching maternity leave requests a specific set of documents. Have them ready before the inspector calls.
- Maternity-leave application signed by the employee with the planned start date.
- Supporting medical certificate from a DHA or DoH licensed practitioner confirming the expected delivery date.
- Payroll register showing 45 days full pay and 15 days half pay clearly broken out, with WPS or zone-scheme submission confirmations.
- Gratuity accrual schedule for the period showing continued accrual on basic salary.
- Annual-leave accrual continuation for the same period.
- Return-to-work letter confirming the return date and nursing-break entitlement.
- Nursing-break schedule for the six months following delivery showing the breaks were granted and not deducted from pay.
A clean outsourced payroll produces this pack in 30 minutes. An Excel-run payroll typically takes a week to reconstruct and frequently exposes gaps.
The order the entitlements stack in
A single UAE maternity case can involve four separate leave codes running in sequence, and posting them in the wrong order is what produces the mismatched payroll register an MoHRE inspector picks up.
| Stage | Entitlement | Pay | Counts toward the service term for gratuity? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Maternity leave, days 1 to 45 | Article 30(1)(a) | Full wage | Yes |
| 2. Maternity leave, days 46 to 60 | Article 30(1)(b) | Half wage | Yes — accrual continues on full basic |
| 3. Sick child or child of determination, first 30 days | Article 30(4) | Full pay | Yes |
| 4. The same entitlement extended | Article 30(4) | Without pay | Not addressed in the clause — confirm the treatment before posting |
| 5. Pregnancy or childbirth-related sickness, up to 45 days | Article 30(2) | Without wage | No — expressly excluded by Article 30(2) |
| 6. Parental leave, five working days | Separate entitlement, either parent | Paid | Yes |
| 7. Return to work, up to six months from delivery | Article 30(9) nursing breaks | Working time | Yes |
Source: Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, Article 30, English text, read 4 August 2026, and the parental-leave entitlement published by MoHRE and on u.ae. Row 4 is flagged rather than answered because the clause does not state the service-term treatment of the extended unpaid period.
Row 4 is deliberately left open. Article 30(4) grants the further 30 days without pay but says nothing about whether that period counts toward the service term, unlike Article 30(2), which is explicit. Rather than assume it follows the 30(2) rule, confirm the treatment with MoHRE or the employee’s own legal adviser before the payroll posting is fixed — the amount at stake is small, but a wrong assumption compounds across every case the policy is applied to.
The order matters commercially as well as administratively. Stages 1 to 3 are paid, so the cash cost lands in the month it is incurred; stages 4 and 5 are unpaid, so the cost to a UAE employer is coverage rather than salary. Planning the cover for stages 4 and 5 is what usually decides whether an SME experiences a maternity case as manageable or disruptive.
How it interacts with annual and sick leave
Three rules head off the usual SME mistakes. Annual leave keeps accruing right through maternity leave at the standard 30-day-per-year rate, prorated for the period, and the employee can’t be made to burn annual leave during the maternity window. Sick leave for pregnancy-related illness sits on top of the 60-day entitlement, up to 45 days, unpaid, with employment continuing. Public holidays that fall inside the maternity window don’t push the leave out, since the 60 days run as calendar days regardless.
If the employment ends within 12 months of the return-to-work date, the accrued annual leave is encashable in the final settlement at basic salary. The gratuity is calculated on the standard 21/30-day formula including the full period of service (the maternity leave does not reduce the service period) — our gratuity calculator UAE guide works that formula through, and the end-of-service benefits UAE guide covers the full final settlement.
Maternity and free-zone law in the UAE — DIFC, ADGM and the variations
Free-zone employers operating under their own employment regulations frequently provide more generous terms than the federal baseline.
- DIFC Employment Law No. 2 of 2019 — 65 working days of maternity leave (33 at full pay, 32 at half pay) with additional sick leave provisions.
- ADGM Employment Regulations 2024 — 65 working days of maternity leave (33 at full pay, 32 at half pay) plus additional unpaid leave entitlements.
- DMCC, JAFZA and other free zones — typically follow federal law as the baseline with employer-discretion enhancement available.
If you operate across zones (a DIFC-licensed parent with a mainland operating company, for example), apply the most generous entitlement consistently to avoid creating internal inequality. The cost difference is small; the HR-relations payback is significant.
How Velmont Crest helps
Velmont Crest’s UAE accounting specialists provide outsourced payroll processing for UAE SMEs including correct maternity-leave handling under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. The standard engagement covers monthly payroll processing, WPS or zone-specific submission, gratuity and leave-accrual tracking including maternity continuation, payslip generation, return-to-work documentation and the supporting payroll-register evidence MoHRE inspectors and auditors expect.
We coordinate with the client’s PRO for visa-related work and with the client’s HR adviser on policy drafting where requested. Scope and fees are set per engagement — get a quote or start with a free discovery call, and see what the accounting and bookkeeping service covers.
We are not a MoHRE-licensed PRO or visa-services agency. We are not a Federal Tax Authority registered tax agent. Our scope is payroll processing, bookkeeping and the supporting documentation.
If you’re updating your HR handbook this quarter
Maternity leave in the UAE is a clear-cut entitlement: 60 calendar days, 45 full pay plus 15 half pay, no service requirement, gratuity continuation, sick-leave overlap, nursing-break protection. The complexity for SME employers is implementation, not interpretation.
Three actions clean up most exposure:
- Update the HR handbook to reflect Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 — the post-February 2022 entitlement, not the pre-2022 framework.
- Configure payroll to split the 45+15 days correctly, continue gratuity accrual on basic salary, and document the leave in the payroll register.
- Document the return-to-work process including the six-month nursing-break entitlement so the entitlement is delivered and recorded.
For deeper coverage of the wider payroll framework, see our payroll outsourcing UAE buyer guide, our annual leave accrual UAE guide, our MoHRE payroll compliance checklist and our domestic worker payroll UAE guide.
Disclaimer: Velmont Crest is a DED-licensed accounting and advisory firm. We provide outsourced payroll processing, WPS submission support, leave-accrual tracking and maternity-leave payroll handling for UAE businesses. We are not a Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE)-licensed PRO or visa-services agency, and we are not a Federal Tax Authority registered tax agent. Fees, regulatory requirements, MoHRE inspection scope and maternity-leave rules change — verify the current position with the relevant authority and take advice from a licensed professional for matters specific to your circumstances.
References
Frequently asked questions
- How many days of maternity leave does UAE labour law give?
- 60 calendar days — 45 at full pay, 15 at half pay. That's the figure set by Article 30 of [Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/justice-safety-and-the-law) for every private-sector female employee, and it applies no matter how long she's been with the company. A free-zone employer running its own zone regulations can match this or go more generous (several do), but it can't drop below the federal floor where federal law applies.
- When does maternity leave start in the UAE?
- Article 30(5) sets the earliest point: the employer must grant the leave on request at any time starting from the last day of the month immediately preceding the month in which she is expected to give birth, proven by a certificate from the medical entity. In practice that is usually a few weeks before the due date rather than a fixed 30 days. The employee gives written notice backed by a medical certificate from a [DHA](https://www.dha.gov.ae/) or [DoH](https://doh.gov.ae/) licensed practitioner. From there the 60-day clock runs continuously — 45 days full pay, then 15 at half pay. You can't split the leave into separate blocks under federal law. Extensions for a sick child or pregnancy-related illness are a different matter, and those are allowed.
- Does maternity leave count toward gratuity in the UAE?
- Yes, the whole 60 days. Under [Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/justice-safety-and-the-law), gratuity accrues on basic salary for every period the employee is on the books, and maternity leave is no exception. Watch the accrual base: it's the registered basic salary, not the smaller cash amount she receives during the half-pay weeks. The mistake we keep running into is payroll switching accrual off for that 15-day window, which understates the year-end provision and shows up as an audit adjustment months later.
- Can a Sharjah or Dubai employer terminate a pregnant employee?
- No. Article 30(8) of [Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/justice-safety-and-the-law) blocks dismissal during pregnancy, during maternity leave, and for any reason tied to the pregnancy. Do it anyway and you're looking at compensation of up to three months' wages, possible reinstatement, MoHRE penalties and a reputational hit. There's one narrow way out — dismissal for cause that has nothing to do with the pregnancy, proven gross misconduct under Article 44. But the burden of proof is yours, and tribunals read the timing closely.
- What about premature birth or pregnancy-related sick leave?
- Premature birth, miscarriage after six months, or stillbirth — the full maternity entitlement still applies, paid the same way. And if the mother or the newborn has a pregnancy-related illness that needs more time off, Article 30(2) adds up to 45 days of absence without wage, continuous or intermittent, proven by a medical certificate. That extra block sits on top of the 60 days rather than eating into them, and employment continues — but Article 30(2) says in terms that the period is not included within the service term for end-of-service benefits or retirement-scheme contributions, so gratuity accrual pauses for those days.
- Are nursing breaks paid in the UAE?
- Yes, and that catches a lot of employers out. Article 30(9) of [Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/justice-safety-and-the-law) gives the returning employee one or two breaks a day to breastfeed her child, together not exceeding one hour, for up to six months from the date of delivery. Most employers schedule them as two 30-minute breaks. Don't fold them into the lunch break. Plenty of SMEs run this on a handshake. Better to write the entitlement into the HR policy, put the breaks on the timesheet, and confirm it in the return-to-work letter.
- What documentation does an MoHRE inspection request on maternity leave?
- An inspector touching maternity leave will ask for the signed application, the medical certificate from a licensed UAE practitioner, the payroll register showing the 45-and-15 split, the gratuity accrual schedule for that period, the return-to-work confirmation, and the nursing-break schedule for the six months after. A clean payroll system spits all of that out in half an hour. An Excel-run one usually means a week of reconstruction — and that's the week you find the gaps.
- How does maternity leave interact with annual leave in the UAE?
- They run separately. Annual leave keeps accruing during maternity leave at the usual rate of 30 calendar days a year, prorated for service. You can't force her to burn annual leave during the maternity window, and you can't offset one against the other. When she's back, the accrued days are hers to use. And if employment ends within 12 months of return, that balance is encashable at basic salary in the final settlement.
- Can Velmont Crest help set up maternity-leave payroll posting for UAE SMEs?
- Yes. [Velmont Crest's UAE accounting specialists](/) run outsourced payroll for SMEs and handle the maternity-leave mechanics properly — the 45-day full-pay block, the 15-day half-pay block, gratuity that keeps accruing on basic salary, nursing-break documentation after return, and the payroll-register evidence MoHRE inspectors and auditors ask for. One thing to be clear on: we're not a MoHRE-licensed PRO. Our scope is payroll and the bookkeeping behind it. Anything visa-related goes through your own PRO.
- Is paternity leave available in the UAE?
- Yes, though it is written as parental leave rather than paternity leave. Under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 a private-sector employee — father or mother — gets five working days of paid parental leave, taken continuously or in blocks within six months of the birth ([u.ae](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/employment-in-the-private-sector/types-of-leaves-and-entitlements-in-the-private-sector/parental-leave); [MoHRE](https://www.mohre.gov.ae/en/paternity-leave.aspx)). It is an entitlement in its own right, not a slice of the mother's 60 days, and not something the employer grants as a favour. Give it its own leave code in payroll. Free-zone employers under their own regulations may offer more, but not less where federal law applies.
- How is maternity leave salary in the UAE calculated?
- Split the 60 days into two blocks. Days 1 to 45 are paid at the full registered total salary — basic plus the contractual allowances — exactly as a normal month would be. Days 46 to 60 are paid at 50 percent of that same total salary. The half-pay figure is what appears on the payslip and in the WPS SIF file, so both have to be reduced consistently. The part people get wrong is gratuity: it keeps accruing on 100 percent of basic salary right through both blocks, because the half-pay rule cuts the cash paid, not the contractual wage the end-of-service benefit is built on. Annual leave also keeps accruing across the whole 60 days.
- Does maternity leave in Dubai differ from the rest of the UAE?
- For mainland employers, no. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 applies across the UAE, so maternity leave in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain starts from the same 60-day entitlement — 45 days at full pay and 15 at half pay, with no minimum service. What varies is free zones that run their own employment regulations. DIFC and ADGM, for example, set their own maternity provisions and are generally more generous than the federal floor. If you hold licences in more than one jurisdiction, apply the most generous entitlement across the group rather than running two standards side by side.
- Does UAE maternity leave apply to part-time and flexible-work employees?
- Yes — the contract type doesn't matter. [Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/justice-safety-and-the-law) and its Cabinet decisions extend the entitlement to part-time, temporary, flexible-work and shared-job models brought in from 2022. The full 60 days apply, with pay worked out on the contracted pattern rather than full-time wages. Protection tracks the employment relationship, not whatever the contract happens to be called.
Filed under: maternity leave uae, uae labour law, mohre payroll, hr policy uae, federal decree law 33, sme employer compliance
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