After one year of employment, an employee in the UAE is entitled to 30 days of annual leave. This is in accordance with Article 29 (1) of the Employment Law, which states, "Without prejudice to the employee's rights accruing prior to the entry into force of this Decree-Law, the employee shall be entitled to a paid annual leave of not less than: a. 30 (thirty) days per year for each year of service."
Can employees encash entire annual leave
An employer must permit an employee to take annual leave at least every two years, unless the employee wishes to carry the leave forward or be paid in lieu of the leave. This is in line with Article 29(8) of the Labour Code, which states that "the employer shall not prevent the employee from using his or her accumulated annual leave for more than two (2) years, unless the employee wishes to transfer it or will be paid in lieu of leave, in accordance with the statutes of the establishment and the implementing provisions of this Legislative Decree".
Additionally, an employee may agree with an employer to receive cash in lieu of merely 15 days of their annual vacation the following year. According to Section 19(1) of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, "Subject to the provisions of Clauses 8 and 9 of Article 29 of the Decree Law, the employee may carry forward not more than half of the annual leave to the following year, or he may agree with the employer to receive a cash allowance therefor, according to the salary he receives at the time of his entitlement to the leave," the employee may only carry forward up to half of his annual leave.
In accordance with the aforementioned legal rules, you and your employer may mutually agree to receive compensation in lieu of unused annual leave. If your company agrees to pay you cash in lieu of annual leave that you did not take, your pay should be based on your total monthly wage.
An employee has a right to cash in lieu of the number of annual leave days that they have not used over the course of their employment with an employer. These calculations are based on the employee's base pay. According to Article 29(9) of the Employment Law, "An employee shall be entitled to be paid for his days of leave if he leaves work prior to using thereof, regardless of the length thereof, for the period for which he did not use his leave." This is the case. The employee is entitled to leave pay for any fraction of the year in proportion to the time they have worked there, and this is determined using the fundamental
