Labour and employment
Unpaid Salary and End of Service Gratuity
Your salary has not arrived. Or you have resigned, worked your notice, handed back the laptop, and the final settlement your employer promised has not been paid. This is the most common legal problem employees face in the UAE, and it is the reason most people search for a gratuity lawyer in Dubai in the first place.
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First ten minutes free, with the advocate.
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Proceedings in Arabic, explained to you in plain terms.
The short answer
The position is usually better than it feels. Unpaid wages and end of service gratuity are debts owed to you. There is a free government route for pursuing them, it does not begin in a courtroom, and you do not lose the claim simply because you have already left the company or the country.
This page explains what gratuity is, what to do when pay stops, how a claim moves from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation to the labour court, and what to keep so that your account of events can be proved rather than argued.
What end of service gratuity is
Gratuity, also called end of service benefit or end of service in the UAE, is a lump sum an employer pays a departing employee based on the time they served. It is separate from your final month of salary, from untaken annual leave, and from any notice pay. An employer who settles your last payslip has not necessarily settled your gratuity.
It is a statutory entitlement, not a bonus and not a discretionary reward for good performance. An employer cannot decide you have not earned it because they were unhappy with your resignation.
Who is entitled to it
Gratuity applies to employees working under the federal labour law, which covers the private sector across all seven emirates. Entitlement depends on completing a qualifying period of continuous service.
Several groups sit outside or partly outside that framework. Government employees are covered by their own regulations. UAE and GCC nationals enrolled in a pension scheme normally receive pension contributions rather than gratuity. Domestic workers are covered by separate legislation.
What the sum is calculated on
Gratuity is worked out from your length of service and a defined figure from your pay, not from your total package including allowances. Which elements count, and how the years are treated, are set by the current law rather than by your employer’s internal policy. We do not publish a formula here, because the law changed and a wrong calculation costs people real money.
Our UAE gratuity calculator gives you a working figure to check an employer’s offer against. If the two numbers differ by a wide margin, that gap is the thing to ask about before you sign anything.
If you work in a free zone, the DIFC or ADGM
Most free zone employees fall under the federal labour law, with the free zone authority handling registration and visas. The DIFC and ADGM are different. Each has its own employment law and its own courts, and end of service is handled differently there. If your contract names the DIFC or ADGM, the route described below is not your route, and you should say so at the first conversation.
When a salary goes unpaid
A late salary is not automatically a legal dispute. Payroll fails, banks delay, approvals stall. The problem starts when late becomes a pattern, or when the explanations stop.
Put it in writing early
Ask for the position in writing, by email, politely and factually. One short message asking when the outstanding salary for a named month will be paid is worth more later than months of verbal reassurance. If your employer answers, you have their version on record. If they do not answer, that silence is also evidence.
The Wages Protection System
Most private sector wages in the UAE are paid through the Wages Protection System, an electronic transfer system that lets MOHRE see whether employers are paying registered staff. Because the transfers are recorded, a gap in your salary history is visible rather than deniable. Your bank statement showing what actually landed in your account is one of the strongest documents you can bring.
Do not simply stop attending
Walking out without advice can turn a straightforward wage claim into a second problem, because an employer may report an unexplained absence. Get advice before you stop attending, not afterwards. If you have already been dismissed and you think the dismissal itself was unlawful, that is a related but separate claim, and it is covered on our page about wrongful termination in Dubai.
Limited term and unlimited term contracts
People still describe their contract as limited or unlimited, and employers still use both words. The federal framework was rewritten by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, and the treatment of contract types changed as part of that rewrite.
What matters in practice is narrower than the label. It is what your signed contract says, what the version registered with MOHRE says, and whether the two match. Where they do not, the registered contract is usually the document that carries weight. Ask for a copy of it early. Employees are often surprised by what has been filed in their name.
The route through MOHRE and then the court
Filing the complaint
A labour complaint is made to MOHRE, by phone, through the ministry’s app or website, or at a service centre. There is no charge to make one, and you do not need a lawyer to do it. You give your details, your employer’s details, and what you say you are owed.
What MOHRE does with it
MOHRE contacts the employer and tries to settle the matter between you. Many claims end here, because an employer facing a recorded complaint often pays rather than litigate. If the ministry can resolve it, you get your money without a court case.
When it becomes a court case
If the complaint cannot be settled, it is referred onward to the labour court. Employee claims of this kind are generally treated favourably on fees, and the court process is document led rather than dramatic. Deadlines apply at more than one stage, both for bringing the original claim and for moving from a ministry decision to the court. They are short, they are strict, and missing one can end an otherwise good claim. Ask about the timing at the very first conversation, even if you are not yet sure you want to proceed.
What to gather before you speak to anyone
Bring what you have. A gap in the file is not fatal, and we can often obtain missing records.
Screenshots of messages are useful. Keep the originals on the device as well, because a screenshot alone is easier to challenge.
- Your signed employment contract, and the offer letter if you kept it
- The MOHRE registered contract, if you can obtain a copy
- Payslips, and bank statements showing what was actually credited
- Any WPS records or salary certificates you hold
- Your resignation letter or the termination letter, with dates
- Emails and messages about pay, notice, leave or the final settlement
- Any settlement statement or final calculation the employer has given you
- Emirates ID, passport with the residence visa page, and labour card details
If you have already left the UAE
Leaving does not extinguish the debt, and a claim can be run without you in the country. The usual route is a power of attorney appointing a lawyer to act for you, signed where you now live, then notarised and legalised so that it is recognised here, with a legal translation into Arabic. The chain of steps depends on the country you sign in.
The practical points matter as much as the paperwork. Cancelled visas, closed UAE bank accounts and a former employer who has stopped responding all make the file harder, and the passage of time works against you. If you are outside the country and think you are owed money, raise it now rather than on your next visit.
How we help
We act for employees and for employers, and the work is the same either way: establish what is actually owed, put it to the other side properly, and take it through MOHRE and the labour court if it is not paid. That includes reading the contract and the registered version against each other, checking the employer’s calculation of end of service, preparing and filing the claim, handling the Arabic filings and translations, and appearing for you. Employment law, labour law and labor law are all names for the same body of rules, and this is the part of our practice that handles them.
Our wider employment work, including contract review, notice disputes and employer side advice, sits on our employment and labour lawyers in Dubai page. How we structure and quote our charges is set out on our legal fees page.
Common questions
Can I still claim gratuity if I resigned?
Resignation does not remove the entitlement. Whether it changes the amount depends on the current law and on the circumstances of your departure. The reduction rules that circulate online are drawn from the older legislation and should not be relied on.
How long do I have to make a claim?
There is a time limit, and it runs from a defined point rather than from when you decide to act. Because it is short and because missing it is final, treat it as the first question to ask.
My employer says my gratuity was already in my final salary. Is that allowed?
It can be, if the settlement statement genuinely includes it and the figure is right. Ask for the breakdown in writing. A single lump sum with no calculation behind it is the most common way an underpayment goes unnoticed.
Can my employer deduct money from my gratuity?
Deductions are permitted only in defined circumstances and within limits. A deduction for a debt you dispute, for training costs, or as a penalty for resigning is worth challenging rather than accepting.
What happens if my employer has closed down?
The claim survives the company’s trading position, though recovery becomes a question of what assets and guarantees exist. Act quickly; the options narrow as a business winds down.
Does gratuity law work the same way in Abu Dhabi?
The federal labour law applies across the country, so the entitlement itself does not change between emirates. What differs is the local MOHRE office and the court handling the file. Employees searching for gratuity law in Abu Dhabi are generally looking at the same federal rules that apply in Dubai.
Do I need a lawyer to file a MOHRE complaint?
No, and many people file successfully on their own. Advice is worth taking where the sum is significant, where the employer disputes the figures, where the case is heading to court, or where you are outside the country.
Speak to us about your claim
If your salary or your end of service payment has not been paid, tell us what happened and what you still hold. We will tell you what the claim looks like, what is missing, and what the next step is.
Call or message us on +971 50 747 9570, or email help@lawyerindubai.ae. You can also use the form on our contact page.
What this costs
The first ten minutes are free. After that a standard fee applies and you are told what it is, in writing, before any work starts. Court and government fees are set by the court and are separate from ours.
Tell us what happened
Ten minutes, no charge, and a straight answer about whether you need a lawyer for this.