UAE end-of-service gratuity: 21 days, then 30, on the basic wage only
Article 51 of Decree-Law 33 of 2021 for a foreign full-time worker: basic wage not the package, a one-year minimum, a cap of two years of wage, and resignation does not reduce it.
In the UAE the gratuity is not worked out on the “all-in salary”. Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 gives a foreign worker on a full-time pattern, after one year or more of continuous service, a gratuity on the basic wage: 21 days of wage for each of the first five years, and 30 days of wage for each year after that. A part of a year is proportional, provided the first year was completed.
Why someone arriving from Saudi Arabia gets this wrong
In Saudi Arabia the fixed allowances go into the wage the award is calculated on. Here they do not. Housing and transport stay outside Article 51. Two contracts with the same gross pay, one with a high basic and small allowances and one the other way round, part company by thousands of dirhams on the last day. Read the basic wage on the contract registered with the ministry, not in the WhatsApp message. What to match on the screen before you accept is in the MOHRE contract check.
Days of unpaid absence are not counted in the service. If you had a month without pay, take it out of the years before you multiply. A national worker’s path is pensions and social insurance, not this article. Work patterns other than full-time are dealt with in Article 52, and the calculator on this site does not cover them.
An example, and a cap the result cannot pass
Basic wage 3,000 dirhams, three full years, no unpaid absence. A day’s wage is 3,000 ÷ 30 = 100. Three years × 21 days × 100 = 6,300 dirhams. Six years on the same basic: the first five are 21 × 5 × 100 = 10,500, the sixth year is 30 × 100 = 3,000, total 13,500. The article caps the whole gratuity at two years of wage. Use your own length in the calculator and choose the UAE. It stops at that cap and says so.
Resignation does not put you back on the old one-third scale
The old law reduced the gratuity if you resigned. The 2021 decree does not. Once you have completed a year of continuous full-time service, the gratuity is the full Article 51 amount whether the employer ended the contract, the term expired, or you resigned, as long as you are inside that article. Someone who says “resignation in Dubai works like Saudi Arabia” is quoting a rule that was repealed. The comparison is in the guide to the difference.
Dismissal without notice under Article 44 removes the notice allowance. It does not cancel the gratuity merely because Article 44 was mentioned. A deduction from the gratuity under Article 51 is for amounts legally due or due by a judgment, not a cancellation of the right. Leaving in the Article 45 cases keeps your end-of-service rights. Those paths are in the guide to ending a UAE contract.
The fourteen days
Article 53 requires the employer to pay the wages and the other entitlements the decree and the contract provide within fourteen days of the contract ending. Do not travel on a promise that “we will transfer it after you land”. Unused leave is claimed in the same settlement. Leave is in its own guide.
This explains Article 51 as the decree has it. It is not a ruling on your dispute. A free zone can have its own regulations. Read the decree on the UAE Legislation portal, and check the basic wage in the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation channel, before you sign a release.
A part year, unpaid absence, and an alternative scheme
One year and six months on a basic wage of 3,000: the first year is 21 days × 100 = 2,100. The six months are half of that band, 1,050. The total is 3,150, not zero on the argument that the second year was not finished. The only condition for the part year is that the first year was completed. Before that, nothing is due.
A month of unpaid absence comes off the length before you multiply. Do not subtract paid annual leave, or sick leave for which a wage was paid. Mixing the two is how people reduce their own gratuity.
The last paragraph of Article 51 lets the Cabinet approve alternative end-of-service schemes. Some establishments enrol the worker in a fund instead of the traditional sum. Ask in writing: is my contract on the Article 51 calculation or on an alternative scheme, and where is my balance? If a scheme exists, the traditional calculator does not apply, and the figure you ask for is that balance, not the 21-and-30 result.
Sources
Rules and fees change and differ by country and employer. Always check with the official authorities before paying or signing anything.