Khaleej Times, Sunday, Mar 19, 2023 | Sha'ban 27, 1444
UAE jobs: Part-time work hours, annual leave, gratuity; all you need to know
Emirates:
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.
Gratuity
Moreover, an employee who is employed on a part-time contract is eligible for
gratuity based on the hours of work spent by a part-time employee in a year with
an employer which is divided by the number of hours of work for regular
employees of such employer in a year multiplied by a hundred.
The percentage arrived from this calculation is the percentage of gratuity
payable to an employee based on the gratuity payable for the full-time
employment contract. This is in accordance with Article 30 of the Cabinet
Resolution No. 1 of 2022, which states, “Subject to the provisions of Article 52
of the Decree Law, the end of service benefits due to employees working in
part-time or job-sharing types and not on a full-time basis shall be calculated
pursuant to the following mechanism:
1. The number of working hours set out in the employment contract per year
divided by the number of working hours in the full-time contract per year
multiplied by 100 equal to the percentage on which the end-of-service benefit
should be calculated, then this percentage should be multiplied by the value of
the end of service benefit due for the full-time employment contract.
2. The end of service benefit shall not apply in the case of temporary
employment if its duration is less than one year."