United Arab Emirates
Answer ... Employment relationships in the United Arab Emirates are governed and regulated by the UAE Labour Law (33/2021) which is supplemented by UAE Cabinet Resolution 1/2022 (‘Executive Regulations’).
The UAE Labour Law applies to all companies and employees in the private sector in the United Arab Emirates, including its free zones; save for the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Abu Dhabi Global Market, both of which implement their own employment laws.
The UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) also frequently issues resolutions and decisions which affect employers and employees across the private sector in the United Arab Emirates.
United Arab Emirates
Answer ... All employees in the United Arab Emirates must enter into a written employment contract.
Where an employee is employed by a company registered with the MoHRE, the employee must enter into a dual-language (Arabic/English) employment contract in a form prescribed by the MoHRE (‘MoHRE employment contract’).
Similarly, some free zones require employees to enter into a dual-language (Arabic/English) employment contract in a form prescribed by the relevant free zone authority (‘free zone employment contract’).
The MoHRE employment contract and the free zone employment contract contain only basic information and cannot be materially amended. It is therefore common for UAE employers to implement an additional English language company employment contract (‘company employment contract’), which contains additional and more sophisticated terms and conditions – for example, provisions relating to:
- duties;
- bonuses;
- incentive arrangements;
- confidentiality; and
- obligations before and after the termination of employment.
While the MoHRE employment contract and the free zone employment contract are typically recognised by the UAE labour courts as the operative employment contract, the terms of a company employment contract will be enforceable as long as they do not seek to exclude the rights or entitlements afforded by the UAE Labour Law.
Where there is a discrepancy between the terms of two employment contracts, a UAE labour court will typically apply the term which is more beneficial to the employee.
United Arab Emirates
Answer ... All employees in the United Arab Emirates must enter into a written employment contract.
All employees must be employed on fixed-term employment contracts not exceeding three years. Employment contracts may be extended for the same or a shorter period, either expressly or – if the parties simply continue to perform the employment contract – automatically.
The UAE labour courts typically place sole reliance on express written contractual terms and do not normally imply terms into employment contracts.
The UAE Labour Law states that employment contracts must include:
- the name and address of the employer;
- the name of the employee;
- the employee’s nationality;
- the employee’s date of birth;
- the term of the contract;
- the role or job title;
- the commencement date;
- the place of work;
- working hours;
- rest days;
- any probationary period;
- annual leave;
- wages (including benefits and allowances); and
- the notice period.
In practice, the inclusion of some of these particulars (eg, the employee’s nationality and date of birth) is not rigorously enforced.