When someone close to you dies, the last thing you want to think about is whether you are allowed to take time off work. But in the UAE, where most of the workforce is expatriate and families are often spread across continents, knowing your leave entitlements matters. You may need to fly home on short notice. You may need several days to arrange travel, attend funeral rites, and handle family obligations. And you need to know that your employer cannot dock your pay for the time you take.
The UAE labour law provides specific bereavement leave entitlements. Five paid days if your spouse dies. Three paid days for a parent, child, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild. These days are separate from your annual leave and sick leave. Your employer cannot deduct them from your other leave balances. This is a legal entitlement, not a favour.
But bereavement leave is just one piece of the leave framework in the UAE. This article covers compassionate leave in detail, then walks through every other type of leave you are entitled to as a private sector employee, because most people do not know the full picture until they need it.
Bereavement leave under UAE labour law
Bereavement leave, also called compassionate leave, is governed by Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations in the Private Sector. This is the same law that overhauled employment contracts, notice periods, and many other aspects of working in the UAE when it took effect in February 2022.
How many days you get
The law provides two tiers of bereavement leave based on your relationship to the deceased.
If your spouse dies, you are entitled to five days of paid leave. This is the highest entitlement and recognizes that the death of a spouse typically requires the most administrative and personal adjustment.
If a parent, child, sibling, grandchild, or grandparent dies, you are entitled to three days of paid leave. This covers your immediate family across three generations.
These are calendar days, not working days. If you take bereavement leave starting on a Wednesday, your three days run Wednesday through Friday, even if Friday is your weekend day.
Paid or unpaid
Both tiers are fully paid. Your employer must pay your regular salary for the bereavement leave days. There is no salary deduction, no requirement to make up the hours, and no condition that ties the payment to length of service. Whether you have been with the company for two months or ten years, the entitlement is the same.
What about extended family
The law specifically lists spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandchild, and grandparent. It does not explicitly cover aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, nieces, nephews, or close friends. If someone outside the listed relationships dies and you need time off, you have a few options. You can request unpaid leave from your employer, which they may grant at their discretion. You can use your annual leave balance. Or you can ask whether your company’s internal HR policy provides additional compassionate leave beyond the legal minimum, as some companies do.
Documentation
The law does not specify exactly what documentation is required, but standard practice is to provide proof of the death. A death certificate is the most common document. If the death occurred overseas and you do not yet have the certificate, most employers will accept a hospital notification, a family member’s official statement, or other credible evidence. The expectation is reasonable proof, not a bureaucratic obstacle course.
You should notify your employer as soon as possible. Most companies expect notification within the first day, though the circumstances obviously make it impractical to follow formal channels when you are dealing with a sudden loss. A phone call or message to your direct manager is sufficient initial notification, followed by formal documentation when you are able.
Can bereavement leave be extended
The legal entitlement is fixed at five or three days. It cannot be extended under the bereavement leave provision itself. However, employers can grant additional unpaid leave at their discretion. Some companies have internal policies that provide more generous bereavement leave than the legal minimum. International companies in the UAE sometimes apply their global bereavement policies, which may offer five or more days regardless of the relationship.
If three days is not enough, especially if you need to travel internationally for funeral arrangements, the practical approach is to combine bereavement leave with annual leave or request additional unpaid leave. Most employers are understanding about this. If yours is not, it is worth knowing that refusing to grant the statutory bereavement leave is a violation of UAE labour law, and you can raise a complaint through MOHRE.
Can your employer refuse bereavement leave
No. The statutory bereavement leave cannot be refused for the relationships covered by the law. If your employer refuses to grant three or five days of paid leave after the death of a qualifying family member, they are in violation of the labour law. You can file a complaint through MOHRE’s complaint portal or app. That said, disputes about bereavement leave are relatively uncommon because most employers understand the sensitivity of the situation.
What employers can question is the relationship. If there is ambiguity about whether the deceased qualifies under the listed relationships, the employer may ask for documentation proving the family connection. This is rare but can happen, particularly with grandparents or half-siblings where the family relationship is not immediately obvious from passport details.
Other leave entitlements in the UAE private sector
Since we are on the subject of time off, here is the complete picture of what UAE labour law provides. Most employees know about annual leave and sick leave, but there are several other entitlements that people discover only when they need them.
Annual leave
After completing one year of continuous service, you are entitled to 30 calendar days of paid annual leave per year. If you have completed six months but less than a year, you get two days per completed month of service.
Your employer decides when you take your leave, but they must allow you to take it. Carrying over unused leave is possible, but after two years, your employer can either require you to take it or compensate you for the untaken days. When your employment ends, any accrued but unused annual leave must be paid out at your basic salary rate.
Annual leave is calculated based on calendar days, which means weekends and public holidays that fall within your leave period count toward the 30 days. If you take two weeks off, that is 14 calendar days of annual leave, not 10 working days.
Sick leave
You are entitled to up to 90 calendar days of sick leave per year after completing the probation period. The pay structure is tiered: the first 15 days are at full pay, the next 30 days are at half pay, and the remaining 45 days are unpaid.
You need a medical certificate from a licensed doctor to claim sick leave. The certificate should be submitted within three days of the absence. During probation, sick leave is generally unpaid and granted at the employer’s discretion, though most companies still allow reasonable time for illness.
Sick leave cannot be used to take time off for non-medical reasons. If an employer discovers that an employee used sick leave fraudulently, it can be grounds for disciplinary action.
Maternity leave
Female employees are entitled to 60 calendar days of maternity leave. The first 45 days are at full pay and the remaining 15 days are at half pay. Maternity leave can start up to 30 days before the expected delivery date.
If the baby is born with a disability or illness, the mother is entitled to an additional 30 days of paid leave, which can be extended by another 30 days unpaid.
After returning to work, nursing mothers are entitled to one or two daily breaks (totaling one hour) for breastfeeding for six months after the return date. These breaks are paid and do not count against other leave balances.
There is no minimum service period required for maternity leave. Whether you have been with the company for three months or three years, the entitlement is the same.
Parental leave
Both mothers and fathers in the private sector are entitled to five working days of paid parental leave. This can be taken at any point from the day of birth up to six months after. The UAE was the first Arab country to introduce this entitlement.
Parental leave is separate from maternity leave. A mother can take her 60 days of maternity leave and then also take five days of parental leave within six months of the birth. A father takes the five days of parental leave. Some people confuse this with paternity leave, but the UAE law uses the term parental leave and applies it to both parents.
Study leave
If you have completed at least two years of continuous service with your employer, you are entitled to up to 10 working days of paid study leave per year. This applies if you are enrolled in a recognized educational institution in the UAE and need time off for examinations.
You must provide proof of enrollment and the examination schedule. The leave is specifically for exam preparation and sitting the exams, not for general study purposes. Your employer can request your exam results as verification that you actually took the exams during the leave period.
Hajj leave
Every Muslim employee is entitled to up to 30 days of leave to perform Hajj once during their employment tenure. This leave is unpaid. It can only be taken once with the same employer, so if you perform Hajj and then stay with the same company for another decade, you cannot take another 30 day Hajj leave.
The timing of Hajj leave follows the Islamic calendar, and you should coordinate with your employer well in advance since the pilgrimage dates are known months ahead.
Sabbatical leave for national service
Emirati nationals in the private sector are entitled to sabbatical leave to fulfill national service obligations. This leave is paid, and the employee’s job is protected during the service period. This does not apply to expatriate workers.
Public holidays
The UAE mandates several paid public holidays each year. These include New Year’s Day, Eid Al Fitr (typically two to three days), Arafat Day, Eid Al Adha (typically three days), Islamic New Year, the Prophet’s Birthday, Commemoration Day (November 30), and National Day (December 2-3).
If you are required to work on a public holiday, you are entitled to your regular daily wage plus at least 50% of your basic salary as overtime compensation. Alternatively, your employer can offer a substitute day off.
You are also entitled to at least one paid rest day per week. Most private sector companies observe Friday and Saturday as the weekend, though the specific days can vary by company and sector.
How bereavement leave interacts with other leave types
Bereavement leave is its own category. It does not come out of your annual leave balance. It does not come out of your sick leave. It does not affect your probation status or your end of service calculations.
If a death occurs while you are already on annual leave, the bereavement leave days should be added to your remaining annual leave. In practice, this can be a point of confusion with employers, but the legal position is clear: bereavement leave is a separate entitlement.
If you are on sick leave when a family member dies, the bereavement leave applies separately. You do not need to choose one or the other.
If you are on maternity or parental leave, the bereavement leave entitlement still applies, though the practical impact is less significant since you are already on leave.
What the law does not cover
There are several situations where people expect compassionate leave but the law does not explicitly provide it.
Miscarriage is not covered under the bereavement leave provision. It may be covered under sick leave if there are medical complications, but there is no specific entitlement for pregnancy loss.
Serious illness of a family member, where the person is not deceased but requires urgent care or travel, is not covered by any specific leave entitlement. You would need to use annual leave or request unpaid leave.
Pet loss is not covered. I mention this because it does come up, and the answer is straightforward: there is no legal provision.
Mental health leave related to grief that extends beyond the bereavement leave period falls under sick leave if you have a medical certificate from a licensed practitioner. If your grief is affecting your ability to work beyond the three or five day bereavement period, seeing a doctor and obtaining a medical certificate allows you to use your sick leave entitlement.
DIFC and ADGM employees
If you work in the Dubai International Financial Centre or the Abu Dhabi Global Market, you are not governed by the UAE federal labour law. Both financial free zones have their own employment regulations.
DIFC Employment Law provides for “compassionate leave” but the specific entitlements are set out in DIFC regulations and may differ from the federal law. ADGM has its own employment regulations as well. If you work in either zone, check your specific zone’s employment law rather than relying on the federal provisions described in this article.
Practical advice
Know your entitlement before you need it. When someone dies, you should not have to Google your leave rights while you are grieving. Five days for a spouse, three days for a parent, child, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild. Paid. Separate from other leave. Non-negotiable.
Notify your employer immediately, even informally. A text message or phone call to your manager is enough for the initial notification. Formal documentation can follow when you are ready.
If you need more time than the statutory minimum, ask early. Most employers will accommodate additional unpaid leave or allow you to use annual leave. The conversation is easier to have before you leave than after you have been absent for a week without authorization.
Keep a copy of the death certificate or equivalent documentation. You will need it for your HR file, and if you are traveling internationally, you may need it for visa or travel purposes as well.
If your employer refuses your statutory bereavement leave or tries to deduct it from annual leave, that is a labour law violation. File a complaint through MOHRE. You should not have to fight for three days of paid leave when you have lost a family member, but knowing that the law is on your side makes the conversation with HR significantly easier.