Sick Leave UAE 2026: Entitlement & Pay Explained

Sick leave in the UAE is one of the most misunderstood parts of the labour law, both by employees who assume every day off is fully paid and by employers who fear open-ended liability. The reality is a clear, tiered system. After completing probation, an employee is entitled to up to 90 days of sick leave a year, structured so the cost tapers: full pay, then half pay, then unpaid. On a salary of AED 12,000 a month, that means roughly AED 6,000 for the first fully paid stretch, and a further reduced amount thereafter.

Under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, the framework is designed to protect genuinely unwell workers while giving businesses predictable exposure. This guide breaks down exactly how many days you get, what each is paid at, how probation changes the picture, how to report illness correctly, and when, if ever, an employer can end a contract during illness. It also covers the money details, gratuity, WPS and tax, that both sides tend to overlook.

How Much Sick Leave Are You Entitled to in the UAE in 2026?

In the UAE, an employee gets up to 90 days of sick leave per year after probation: 15 days at full pay, the next 30 days at half pay, and 45 days unpaid. Under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, probation (up to 6 months) carries no paid sick leave, and you must notify your employer within 3 working days with a medical certificate.

The entitlement is annual and can be taken continuously or in separate spells across the year, but the tiers apply cumulatively: once you have used your 15 fully paid days, further sick days that year move to half pay, and once the half-pay window is exhausted, remaining days are unpaid. The table below shows how the schedule translates into real money for an employee earning AED 12,000 a month, or AED 400 a day, so you can see the financial shape of each tier.

This structure means the maximum an employer pays for a full 90-day sick year, on this salary, is around one month's wage spread across the paid tiers, giving businesses a predictable ceiling while still protecting the worker.

The 15 + 30 + 45 Sick Leave Formula Explained

The heart of the system is a simple formula that every UAE employee and HR manager should memorise: 15 + 30 + 45. The first 15 days of sick leave in any year are paid in full. The next 30 days are paid at half the wage. The final 45 days are unpaid but still protected, meaning your job is preserved even though no salary is due for those days. Added together, that is a 90-day annual entitlement.

Two points cause most confusion. First, these are calendar-based entitlements within a single year of service, not per illness. If you use ten fully paid days for one illness in March and come back sick in July, you have five fully paid days left before dropping to half pay. Second, "full pay" and "half pay" are calculated on the wage as defined in your contract, so the exact figure depends on whether your package treats certain allowances as part of the wage. This is one reason a precise, well-drafted contract matters so much.

It is also worth understanding what the formula is not. It is not annual leave, which is a separate 30-day entitlement after one year of service. It is not maternity leave, which has its own 60-day structure. And unused sick days do not roll over or get paid out, they simply reset. The 15-30-45 tiers exist to balance genuine protection for the unwell against a defined, affordable cost for the employer, which is exactly the balance MOHRE is trying to strike across the private sector.

Sick Leave During Probation: What You Get, and What You Do Not

Probation is where expectations most often collide with the law. During the probation period, which can run up to six months under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, an employee is not entitled to paid sick leave. This surprises many new joiners who assume the 15-30-45 tiers apply from day one. They do not.

That does not mean a probationer has no protection at all. A genuinely ill employee on probation can still take time off, supported by a valid medical certificate, but the employer is not obliged to pay for it. The days are effectively unpaid sick leave. Crucially, an employer should not treat a legitimate, certificated illness during probation as automatic grounds for a poor assessment or dismissal, doing so can expose the business to a complaint, particularly if the timing looks retaliatory.

Once probation is successfully completed, the full sick-leave entitlement switches on and, importantly, service is counted from the original start date, not from the end of probation. So an employee who finishes a five-month probation and falls ill in month seven has full access to the 15-30-45 structure. For employers, the practical takeaway is to set probation length deliberately, document performance fairly, and never use a short probationary illness as a shortcut to exit someone, because the legal and reputational risk outweighs the saving.

How to Report Sick Leave Correctly

Getting the process right protects both sides. The employee's core obligations are to notify the employer promptly, generally within three working days of falling ill, and to provide a medical certificate from a licensed UAE healthcare provider. In Dubai, that typically means a facility regulated by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA); other emirates have their equivalent regulators. A certificate from an unlicensed source, or a vague note without a diagnosis or a doctor's stamp, can legitimately be questioned.

For the employer, the duty is to act reasonably. If the certificate is valid and from a recognised provider, the employer should record the absence, apply the correct pay tier, and process wages through the Wages Protection System (WPS) as normal, at full or half pay depending on where the employee sits in the 15-30-45 schedule. Where an employer has genuine, specific doubts about a certificate, the appropriate route is to seek verification or a second medical opinion, not to unilaterally dock pay or mark the person absent without leave.

Documentation is the theme on both sides. Employees should keep copies of every certificate and every message notifying the employer. Employers should keep a clear leave register showing dates, pay tiers applied and certificates received. If a dispute ever reaches MOHRE, the party with clean, contemporaneous records almost always fares better. You can review the official process and lodge queries or complaints through the MOHRE portal, which is the first port of call before any matter escalates.

Can You Be Fired While on Sick Leave?

This is the question employees fear most, and the law gives a reassuring answer with a clear boundary. An employer cannot terminate an employee simply for being on sick leave within their 90-day entitlement. The days are protected; using them lawfully is not a valid ground for dismissal. An employer who fires someone purely for taking certificated sick leave risks an arbitrary-dismissal claim.

The boundary is the 90-day ceiling. If an employee exhausts the full 90 days of sick leave in a year and is still medically unable to return to work, the employer may then lawfully terminate the contract, because the employment can no longer be performed. Even then, the employee retains their accrued entitlements, including end-of-service gratuity for their qualifying service, and any pay owed for the paid portion of the sick leave already taken.

There are narrow situations where entitlement can be lost, for example, where the illness results directly from the employee's own serious misconduct, such as injury sustained while intoxicated. These are exceptions, not the norm, and an employer relying on them needs solid evidence. For the vast majority of ordinary illnesses backed by a proper certificate, the employee's position within the 90-day window is secure, and the smart employer focuses on supporting recovery and a smooth return rather than looking for a reason to exit.

Work Injuries and Occupational Illness: A Separate Regime

It is vital to separate ordinary sickness from work-related injury or occupational disease, because they follow different rules. The 15-30-45 sick-leave tiers apply to general illness. An injury sustained at work, or an illness caused by the job, triggers a distinct and more protective regime under the labour law.

Where an employee is injured at work or contracts an occupational illness, the employer is responsible for the cost of treatment and continues to pay the employee's wage during the treatment period, rather than pushing them onto the tapering half-pay and unpaid tiers. The rationale is straightforward: the harm arose from the work, so the worker should not bear the financial cost of recovery. If a work injury leads to permanent disability or, tragically, death, the law provides for defined compensation, and mandatory medical insurance further supports treatment costs across the Emirates.

For employers, this makes health and safety not just a moral duty but a financial one. Preventing workplace injury avoids full-wage treatment liability and potential compensation. It also intersects with the midday-break rules for outdoor workers in summer and with sector-specific safety obligations. Keeping clear records distinguishing ordinary sick leave from work-injury leave is essential, because the pay treatment, and the employer's exposure, differ significantly between the two.

Sick Leave, Gratuity, WPS and Tax: The Money Details

Beyond the headline days, the financial mechanics matter. Sick pay, at full or half rate, must be paid through the Wages Protection System (WPS) like any other wage, on time and to the registered account. An employer who quietly stops WPS payments during an employee's illness, outside the correct unpaid tier, is committing a payroll breach that a MOHRE complaint will expose.

Gratuity is the next consideration. Paid sick-leave days count as part of continuous service for end-of-service gratuity, which accrues at 21 days' basic pay per year for the first five years and 30 days per year thereafter. Long, fully unpaid absences may be treated differently for accrual, so both sides benefit from recording exactly how each period was classified. Keeping the leave register accurate protects the eventual gratuity calculation from dispute.

Finally, the tax picture is simple and favourable. The UAE imposes no personal income tax on wages, sick pay or gratuity, a position administered by the Federal Tax Authority, so the employee receives sick pay without deduction. For the employer, wage costs, including sick pay, are generally deductible business expenses when computing the 9% corporate tax on profits above AED 375,000; profits up to AED 375,000 are taxed at 0%, a threshold confirmed by the Ministry of Finance. In short, sick leave is a predictable, tax-deductible cost, not a hidden liability, provided it is administered correctly.

Sick Leave vs Annual, Maternity and Unpaid Leave

Employees often blur the different leave types, so it helps to see them side by side. Annual leave is 30 calendar days per year after one year of service (with a pro-rated entitlement of two days a month between six months and one year), it is fully paid and can be encashed on exit if unused. Sick leave, by contrast, is the tapering 90-day 15-30-45 structure, is not bankable, and is not paid out.

Maternity leave is different again: 60 days, with the first 45 at full pay and the next 15 at half pay, plus additional protections for the mother. Parental leave gives both parents five days. Unpaid leave is anything agreed between employer and employee beyond these statutory entitlements, entirely at the employer's discretion. Understanding which category an absence falls into determines the pay, the documentation and the job protection that apply.

The reason this matters practically is that mixing them up causes payroll errors and disputes. Marking maternity days as sick leave, or treating exhausted sick leave as unpaid annual leave, produces incorrect WPS payments and can distort gratuity. A clean HR policy names each leave type explicitly, applies the correct pay rule, and records it accurately, which is exactly the discipline MOHRE expects when it reviews a complaint. Getting the categories right from the start is far cheaper than untangling them later.

What Counts as a Valid Medical Certificate

Because so much of the sick-leave process turns on the medical certificate, it is worth being precise about what makes one valid. A certificate should come from a licensed healthcare provider operating legally in the UAE, in Dubai typically a facility regulated by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), and it should identify the patient, carry the date, indicate the period of rest advised, and bear the stamp or signature of the treating doctor. A vague handwritten note without these elements is far easier for an employer to question.

Employers are entitled to apply reasonable scrutiny, particularly to patterns that suggest abuse, such as certificates that always cover the day after a rest day. But scrutiny is not the same as rejection. Where a certificate comes from a recognised provider and looks genuine, the employer should accept it and apply the correct pay tier; if there is a specific, articulable reason to doubt it, the proper route is verification with the issuing facility or a request for a second opinion, not a unilateral decision to dock pay.

For employees, the lesson is practical: always obtain a proper certificate from a licensed clinic or hospital, keep the original and a copy, and submit it promptly. For employers, the lesson is to have a written policy stating what documentation is required and how it is assessed, applied consistently to everyone. Consistency is the best defence against a MOHRE complaint alleging that certificates were treated arbitrarily or that one employee was singled out.

A Worked Example: One Employee's Sick-Leave Year

A concrete year makes the tiers click into place. Consider Ahmed, an operations coordinator on a monthly salary of AED 9,000, or AED 300 a day, who has passed probation. In February he catches a serious flu and is signed off for ten days. Those ten days fall in his first 15-day tier, so he receives full pay, AED 3,000 for the period, and has five fully paid sick days left for the year.

In June, a minor surgery keeps Ahmed off for 25 days. The first five days use up the remainder of his full-pay tier at AED 300 a day (AED 1,500). The next 20 days move into the half-pay tier at AED 150 a day (AED 3,000). He has now used all 15 full-pay days and 20 of his 30 half-pay days. If he needed more time later in the year, the next ten days would still be at half pay, and anything beyond the combined 45 paid days would be unpaid, up to the 90-day annual ceiling.

This example shows why tracking matters. Ahmed and his employer both need a running tally of days used in each tier, because the pay rate for any new absence depends entirely on where he sits in the 15-30-45 sequence. It also shows the built-in fairness: genuine, serious illness is well protected, with meaningful pay across two tiers, while the tapering structure keeps the employer's exposure predictable rather than unlimited.

Sick Leave, Residency Visas and Health Insurance

Sick leave sits alongside two other systems every UAE employee interacts with: the residency visa and mandatory health insurance. An employee on protected sick leave remains employed, so their residency status, which is tied to the employment, continues normally during the 90-day entitlement. It is only if the contract is lawfully terminated, for example after the full 90 days are exhausted and the employee still cannot return, that the usual visa-cancellation and grace-period processes begin, handled through the immigration authorities.

Health insurance is the practical backbone of sick leave, because it funds the treatment behind the certificate. Mandatory medical cover across the Emirates means employees can access care and obtain the certificates the sick-leave process requires. For work-related injury or illness, as covered above, the employer's responsibility for treatment costs is distinct from ordinary insurance-funded care, which is one more reason to classify each absence correctly from the outset.

For employers, the intersection of leave, visa and insurance underlines why HR administration cannot be siloed. A single employee's illness can touch payroll (WPS), documentation (certificates), benefits (insurance) and, in prolonged cases, immigration. Handling these as one coordinated process, rather than as disconnected tasks in different systems, prevents the errors that lead to complaints, and ensures that a genuinely unwell employee is supported smoothly rather than tangled in administrative gaps.

Sick Leave for Part-Time and Flexible Workers

The modern UAE workforce increasingly includes part-time and flexible-permit workers, and a common question is how sick leave applies to them. Where a part-time employee holds a MOHRE work permit and a contract under the federal labour law, the sick-leave framework applies, but the entitlements are generally calculated on a pro-rated basis reflecting the agreed working pattern. The principle of protection is the same; the arithmetic scales to the hours contracted.

This is an area where a precise contract is indispensable. Part-time and flexible arrangements only work cleanly when the contract states the working pattern, how the wage is defined, and how leave entitlements, including sick leave, are pro-rated. Vague part-time contracts create exactly the disputes the sick-leave rules are meant to prevent, because neither side can agree what "15 days" means for someone who works three days a week.

For employers using flexible talent, the guidance is to document everything and to treat part-timers fairly within the pro-rata framework rather than pretending leave rules do not apply. For workers, it is to check that the contract spells out sick-leave treatment before signing. As the labour market continues to diversify, clarity at the contract stage is the single best protection for both sides, and it keeps the whole arrangement squarely within MOHRE's expectations.

Common Mistakes with Sick Leave in the UAE

• Assuming all 90 sick days are fully paid, when only the first 15 are at full pay, the next 30 at half, and the final 45 unpaid.
• Granting paid sick leave during probation, or conversely punishing a probationer for a genuine, certificated illness.
• Accepting or issuing vague medical notes instead of proper certificates from licensed, DHA-recognised or equivalent providers.
• Stopping WPS salary payments during the paid sick-leave tiers, which is a payroll breach that a MOHRE complaint will surface.
• Terminating an employee during their protected 90-day sick-leave window rather than waiting until it is genuinely exhausted.
• Confusing ordinary sick leave with work-injury leave, which carries full-wage treatment pay and a separate employer liability.
• Treating sick leave as a bankable balance to be carried over or encashed, when it resets each year and is never paid out.
• Failing to keep a clear leave register, leaving the employer unable to prove which days were paid, half-paid or unpaid if challenged.

Managing Leave and Compliance with Noble Core

Sick-leave rules are just one thread in a much larger compliance fabric, the entity you set up, the contracts you issue, the payroll you run and the records you keep. Noble Core helps founders weave all of it together correctly. If you are establishing or restructuring a company, our team handles your business setup in Dubai so your legal entity, licensing and HR obligations are aligned from the outset, not bolted on after a dispute.

From there we build the day-to-day systems that keep you compliant. That starts with a properly drafted UAE labour contract that defines the wage clearly, so full-pay and half-pay sick tiers are never ambiguous. We support you through MOHRE enquiry services for permits, leave queries and complaint handling, and we make sure every wage, at full, half or the correct rate, flows accurately through the Wages Protection System (WPS). The outcome is a team that feels protected and a business that is genuinely audit-ready. Book a free 20-minute consultation with Noble Core to review your leave policy and payroll before your next hire or your next MOHRE query.

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