DubaiHires.com

The DubaiHires end of service gratuity calculator has been designed to work with not only the UAE Labor Law which covers the mainland and most freezones but also the freezone areas in the UAE which have variations and different laws regarding employment. These include DIFC (Aug 28th 2019 DIFC Law No2 updated), JAFZA and ADGM. The Dubai Hires end of service calculator runs different calculations and interpretations corresponding to the different laws. The questionnaire form will add or remove fields as you complete it depending on the answers you provide and then generate a free custom gratuity report with your end of service dues and any other pertinent information particular to your specific situation.

Article 3(c) of the UAE Labour Law states that domestic staff are not covered by its provisions. However, they are instead covered by the Federal Law no. (10) of 2017 On Domestic Workers which provides for end of service gratuity under Article 26. Use the End of Service Gratuity Calculator for Domestic Workers for a custom report on what is owed and other compensation requirements depending on how employment ends.

This calculator was coded and compiled by DubaiHires.com, the legal interpretations were done by staff with advanced post graduate UK legal qualifications in international law at LLM level and above. Clarifications were sought with the labour department’s legal advisors where necessary as well as with professionals at the freezones that host their own jurisdictions and labor rules. Problems with existing calculators that many have relied on were highlighted to their official operators during our own analysis resulting in fixes being scheduled by them, so even if you use one of the other options our own analysis should have resulted in more accurate results for everyone. The reports do not constitute legal advice or hold any warranty as to their accuracy, they are simply a preliminary guide and any disputes between employers and employees should be taken to the relevant authorities for official clarification. Having said that we try our very best to have accurate up-to-date interpretations and to explain how they arise. If you think you have spotted an error please email eos(at)www.dubaihires.com.

Occasionally the MOHRE calculator will output a slightly lower gratuity reading, it is because it is programmed in a basic way which rounds down, it is quite rare this alters the numbers but certain numbers of days worked will show an effect. For example if you worked 719 days, 719/365 is 1.96986 years. The MOHRE code cuts 1.96986 to 2 digits after the decimal taking this as 1.96 years (which they then multiply with your days of equivalent salary), whereas logical rounding results in 1.97. Reversing this 1.96yrs x 365 = 715.4 days so the MOHRE calculator is determining your gratuity for 715 days rather than the 719 you worked. Whereas 1.97 x 365 is 719.05 days which is the real number of days you were employed and what Dubai Hires uses in its own calculation.

We noticed this anomaly and having checked this with the legal advisors at the MOHRE, they say it is a coded error in their calculator which is now flagged to be fixed. If you resign within your first 5 years on a limited/renewed-limited (determined term) contract you are due no gratuity, as stated under Articles 138 & 139(b).

Article 88 is considered by several legal firms to be termination for gross misconduct ‘for cause’, where an employer establishes that an employee worked for another employer during annual leave or sick leave and it provides the right to terminate that employee without notice. As a result they say it will result in loss of gratuity similar to being terminated for one of the reasons in Article 120 where this is certainly the case – Article 139(a) specifically mentions a loss of gratuity if terminated for a reason listed in Article 120. It doesn’t however mention Article 88. Having consulted with the MOHRE legal advisors who then confirmed at a higher level, Article 88 does not specifically mention loss of gratuity, only the loss of wages during the leave period, so it should be interpreted that gratuity is still due. If this is likely to affect you it may be worth seeking official clarification or a ruling on this, as there are opposing views and local lawyers seem to be repeating each other without justification.

While DAFZA has its own employment contracts it follows the UAE Labour law regarding gratuity calculations, as confirmed with them in November 2018 and stated under their standard employment contract at section “5. – End of Service” It is possible to be employed there on either a limited term or unlimited term contract. We confirmed with them that should an employee on a limited term contract resign prior to 5 years of service there they will be due no gratuity and would also owe the employer upto 45 days of gross salary compensation (in line with Article 116 of the UAE Labour Law). As DAFZA operates in the same way as the mainland UAE Labor Law the DubaiHires.com calculator will correctly output gratuity dues as standard. Some prominent law firms in the UAE are under the impression that scaled gratuities on unlimited contracts for under five years of service when resigning do not exist in DAFZA, which is outdated information. Their published scaling is available to see on pages 22 & 23 here.

As of the Minister of Labour’s Decree 765 of 2015 on The Termination of Employment Relations, Article (1) I 4 applies regarding notice for limited term contracts where: – Either party (employer or worker) acts unilaterally to terminate a renewed term contract, whether renewal has occurred before or after this decree enters into effect, provided the terminating party complies with the following legal steps: a. Notify the other party in writing of its intent to terminate the contract in accordance with the notice period to be agreed to by the two parties, not to be less than one month and not to exceed three months. If renewal occurred before this decree enters into effect and the parties had not agreed to a notice period, this notice period shall be three months. b. Continue to honor his/her contractual obligations for the duration of the notice period. c. Indemnify the other party to the level that was agreed to by both parties, not to exceed the equivalent of three months of gross wages. If renewal occurred before this decree enters into effect and the parties had not agreed to the amount of indemnification, this indemnification shall be the equivalent of three months of gross wages. Under DAFZA employment contracts in Section 4.A.i it states prior written notice for termination is not applicable to limited term contracts. Under Jafza rules 11.8.1(d) notice of intention not to renew is required before a limited term contract is considered terminated at expiry.

The UAE Labour Law says: Article 116 – As amended by Federal Law no. 12 dated 29/10/1986: Should the contract be rescinded by the worker for causes not set forth in Article 121, the worker shall be bound to compensate the employer for the loss incurred thereto by reason of the rescission of the contract, provided that the amount of compensation does not exceed the wage of half a month for the period of three months, or for the remaining period of the contract, whichever is shorter, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract. The Decree 765 of 2015 says: Article (1) I 4 – c. Indemnify the other party to the level that was agreed to by both parties, not to exceed the equivalent of three months of gross wages. If renewal occurred before this decree enters into effect and the parties had not agreed to the amount of indemnification, this indemnification shall be the equivalent of three months of gross wages. The legal MOHRE advisors say they have not been updated on this and it would require clarification from the labor courts. When questioned if the Labor law prevails on such a conflict with the decree as indicated in this article by a local law firm, the same view was not apparent. The author of that article did not respond for request for comment. If this issue affects you it may be worth seeking a ruling rather than a law firm’s opinion.

According to DAFZA, if an employee on a limited term contract continues working past its standard expiry date and no formal renewal procedure has been conducted, then the contract automatically converts into an unlimited term contract. This is in line with Article 39- 3 and Article 113 (implicitly extended) of the UAE Labour Law. However, the Decree 765 of 2015 Article (1) I 1. seemingly states on English translation that the employment relationship between employer and worker is terminated upon expiry if it is not renewed, but it is unclear whether it caters to implied extensions or only explicit extensions.

This calculator is proving very popular and while many people have unique situations we do try to answer queries where time permits but we don’t offer legal advice. We are also interested to hear if you have had a problem with the calculator or think you have spotted an error, be it a spelling mistake or an interpretation, for all enquiries in this regard please email eos(at)www.dubaihires.com