Q: Hi, I have been informed by my employer that they are not going to renew my contract. They have stated in the letter that "discontinuation of an unlimited contract", and my contract was about to expire on December 20th. Now, will the gratuity calculation be based on termination or resignation? I have read on some websites that the gratuity will vary if terminated by the employer.

Q: Dear Madam, Our management has decided to change the salary structure where we used to pay 60% of Gross Salary as Basic Salary. Now the management wants to change the basic salary of employees to 40% and the remaining amount to be included as other allowance. There will not be any decrease in the salary but there will be a change in the basic salary percentage, is this allowed in the UAE (Our company is in Dubai, a mainland company, sole establishment)? Is it legal to take this step? If yes, then under which article can the change take place? Do we need to settle gratuity based on the current basic salary and revise the contract or we can just change the basic as we are not reducing the gross salary? Please advise.

Q: HI. I have recently resigned from my organization. What I want to know is that in the end of service gratuity calculation, the paid leave amount consists of basic pay only. Shouldn't the HRA be part of paid leave amount as well in addition to basic pay?

The UAE has adopted a major reform in its legislative system that brought about 40 new laws and amendments to the company law, criminal law, personal status, among others. The amendments aim to develop the legislative structure in various sectors, the labor law being one of these, was the most recent. We try in this article to shed light on the changes introduced with the new labor law and their significance on both, the employer and employee.

The provisions of this Decree-Law, known as "New UAE Labor Law", govern labour relations in the private sector of the United Arab Emirates. The New Labor Law repeals the previous UAE Labor Law (Federal Law No. (8) of 1980).

The provisions of this Law, known as "UAE Labour Law", govern the relationship between employers and employees and other labour matters in the United Arab Emirates. There are special labour related regulations applicable in some of the free zones in the UAE.

This Decree sets the rules and conditions for the termination of fixed-term (limited) or unlimited (not term-bound) employment contract between employer and worker in the United Arab Emirates.