UAE jobs: Part-time work hours, annual leave, gratuity; all you need to know

Question: Can you please explain this model of work called a 'part-time' contract under UAE employment laws? How does it work in terms of working hours, leaves, gratuity, etc?

Answer: Pursuant to your query, the provisions of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations and the provisions of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 on the Implementation of Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 are applicable.

In the UAE, an employer can hire an employee on a part-time contract in accordance with Article 7 (1) (b) of the Employment Law and Article 6(1)(f) of the Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022.

A part-time contract worker’s working hours or working days are less than his full-time counterparts. The employee may work for more than one employer after obtaining a permit to do so from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

The Employment Law and the Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 are silent on the minimum number of working hours for employees who are employed under part-time employment contracts. However, the aforesaid provision of the law states that under part-time employment contracts employees work for lesser hours or lesser days than the employees on full-time employment contracts. Therefore, an employer may mention the number of hours of employment for a part-time employee in his or her part-time employment contract as mentioned in Article 8 of the Employment Law read with Article 10 of the Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022.

An employer may not employ part-time employees for more than the number of hours mentioned in the part-time employment contract without an employee’s written consent. This is in accordance with Article 17(5) of the Employment Law.

Annual leave

Furthermore, employees in the UAE who are employed under part-time employment contracts are entitled to annual leave based on the actual number of hours of work completed with their employer. For calculation of annual leave of part-time employees, eight hours of total work is considered as one day of employment in accordance with Article 18 of the Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, which states, “Subject to the provisions of Clause (2) of Article (29) of the Decree-Law, a part-time employee shall be entitled to an annual leave according to the actual working hours he spends with the employer.

The duration of the annual leave shall be determined based on the total working hours after converting them into working days, divided by the number of working days in the year, multiplied by the legally prescribed leaves, with a minimum of five working days per year for annual leave. A fraction of a day is considered a full day in calculating the leave entitlements according to the following:

1. The ratio of the employee's work under a part-time contract shall be equal to the employee’s work under a full-time contract.

2. The actual working hours shall be equal to a maximum of eight working hours per day

3. The number of working hours of the employee under a part-time contract shall be equal to the number of hours contracted

4. The mathematical equation shall consist of the number of working hours under the employee’s part-time contract per year divided by the number of working hours under the full-time contract per year multiplied by 100 equal to the percentage.

• UAE jobs: 5 things companies must consider about employment contracts