Littler International Guide - United Arab Emirates
- Publisher:
- Littler Mendelson
- Publication date:
- 2023-08-07
About the Authors
Disclaimer / Acknowledgements / Notices
§ 1 Overview of Employment & Labor Laws In United Arab Emirates
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 1.1 What are the primary constitutional provisions, statutes, and regulations related to employment?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 1.2 What are the primary mechanisms for enforcement?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 1.3 What are the primary means for resolving disputes between employees and employers?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 1.4 What are the most important characteristics of the legal culture relating to employment?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 1.5 What are the five most common mistakes foreign employers make and what can be done to help avoid them?
§ 2 Hiring
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.1 What are the definitions of employee, employer, independent contractor, and contingent worker (i.e., a temporary or agency worker)?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.2 What are the consequences of misclassifying a worker as an independent contractor, contingent worker, or temporary worker?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.3 Does your jurisdiction allow or prohibit outsourcing? If allowed, what are an employer’s obligations to avoid liability?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.4 What rules apply to background checks?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.5 What rules apply to medical examinations or health-related tests?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.6 May an employer require drug and alcohol testing?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.7 Are there mandated preferences in hiring?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.8 Are there any rules regarding inquiry into an applicant’s salary history or prior compensation? Are there any requirements related to employers disclosing the salary range for open positions?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.9 Are there restrictions on filling openings with contingent workers?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.10 Must a foreign employer set up a local entity to employ local workers, and if so, what are the requirements?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 2.11 What rules apply to the employment of foreign nationals? How much time should an employer allow to obtain the required work authorization documents?
§ 3 .Employment Contracts
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 3.1 Are written employment contracts required for certain employees?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 3.2 What terms are required in employment contracts (if any)?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 3.3 In what language(s) must employment contracts be written?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 3.4 What rules exist relating to the duration of employment contracts?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 3.5 Are probationary periods allowed, and if so, what restrictions apply?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 3.6 Do employment contracts customarily contain covenants to safeguard the employer’s intellectual property, covenants not to compete, and/or agreements to not solicit the employer’s customers or employees?
§ 4 Discrimination, Harassment & Retaliation
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.1 What prohibitions against discrimination exist and how are they defined (e.g., what are the specific protected categories)?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.2 What prohibitions exist against religious discrimination, and what accommodations of religious practices are required of the employer?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.3 What prohibitions exist against disability discrimination, and what accommodations of disabilities are required of the employer?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.4 What prohibitions are there against harassment?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.5 What exceptions are permitted to the prohibitions against discrimination (e.g., job requirements that mandate hiring candidates of a certain age or gender, or quotas to address past discrimination)?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.6 What prohibitions exist regarding retaliation/reprisal?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.7 May individual persons be liable for discrimination, harassment, or retaliation/reprisal?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.8 Are employers required to investigate allegations of sexual harassment from employees?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 4.9 Are employers required to provide antiharassment/antiretaliation training to their workers?
§ 5 Compensation
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 5.1 What restrictions are there on hours that may be worked?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 5.2 What minimum wage requirements exist?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 5.3 What is the required schedule for paying wages, and in what form and currency must they be paid?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 5.4 What overtime pay requirements exist?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 5.5 What bonuses are mandated or customary?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 5.6 Are there any rules related to pay equity or pay transparency?
§ 6 Time Off From Work
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 6.1 What public, statutory, or national holidays are required, and what are the requirements if employees work on such holidays?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 6.2 What are the requirements for short-term sick pay, and who pays it?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 6.3 What are the requirements for paid vacation or annual leave?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 6.4 What requirements exist for paid or unpaid maternity and paternity leave?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 6.5 What requirements are there for new mothers (e.g., part-time work, breaks for breast feeding, day care)?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 6.6 What requirements exist for paid or unpaid medical leaves of absence?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 6.7 What other paid or unpaid leaves of absence must be provided by employers?
§ 9 Privacy & Protection of Employee Personal Information
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 9.1 What rules regulate an employer’s obligation to protect the privacy of personal data about employees, and what is the scope of the employees’ protection(s)?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 9.2 What information must the employer provide to employees before processing (e.g., collecting, storing, using, disclosing, etc.) their personal data, and what are the potential consequences for failure to comply?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 9.3 What restrictions apply to the employer’s export of its employees personal data to related companies in the United States?
§ 10 Representation of Workers, Trade Unions & Works Councils
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 10.1 Do workers have a freedom of association and representation?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 10.2 Does the law require workers to be a member of a trade union, and/or require the employer to establish a works council?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 10.3 How do workers obtain trade union representation?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 10.4 Does the law permit picketing, strikes, lockouts, and/or secondary action?
§ 12 Termination of Employment
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.1 What grounds for dismissal/termination of contract are permitted?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.2 What grounds for dismissal/termination of contract are prohibited?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.3 What notice requirements are there for dismissal and may the employer provide pay in lieu of notice?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.4 How is termination pay calculated, including any commissions, and when must it be paid?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.5 Are there rights to severance pay and how is severance calculated?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.6 How can former employees bring claims on behalf of other workers (i.e., a collective or class action)?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.7 May employers compel employees to arbitrate claims of wrongful dismissal?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.8 Can an employer obtain a release of claims from a former employee?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 12.9 What procedures and terms are required to have an enforceable separation agreement with a former employee?
§ 13 Collective Dismissals (Layoffs) & Business Cessation
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 13.1 What rules apply to collective dismissals?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 13.2 Are there special rules that apply when an employer ceases operations?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 13.3 Are certain employees protected from collective dismissal?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 13.4 How long does the collective dismissal process usually take?
§ 14 Employment & Sale of a Business
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.1 In the sale of a business’s stocks (shares), what (if anything) does corporate law or labor/employment law require of the seller as to pre-deal-closing notification to, or consultation with, the seller’s employees, employee representatives, or government labor agencies?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.2 Regarding seller’s employees, what (if any) mandates does the law impose on a seller contemplating a stock (shares) sale of its business?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.3 In a sale of a business’s assets, do the seller’s employees transfer to the buyer by operation of law?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.4 Where a seller of business assets does not intend to employ its staff after closing the asset sale, does the law allow the parties to the asset sale to structure an “employer substitution” or mandatory transfer―so as to avoid triggering severance pay obligations for the asset seller?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.5 How do parties best structure those employer substitutions/transfers? Can they be structured without employee consent?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.6 In the sale of a business’s assets, what (if anything) does corporate law or labor/employment law require of the seller as to pre-deal-closing notification to, or consultation with, employees, employee representatives, or government labor agencies?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.7 Employee transfer issues aside, what rules regarding a seller’s employees and labor agreements govern a “transfer of undertakings” in the sale of a business’s assets?
- Littler Int'l Guide - United Arab Emirates § 14.8 Before a buyer consummates either a stock (shares) or asset purchase of another business that has its own, separate workforce, what (if anything) does the law expressly require regarding notice to, or consultation with, the buyer’s own existing workforce, employee representatives, or with government labor agencies?