Dubai: Do you have a housekeeper or nanny at home? As per the UAE’s Federal Decree Law on domestic workers, you must ensure they receive their rightful gratuity at the end of their contract. However, who pays for the gratuity, and how much gratuity your domestic worker is entitled to, depends on various factors.
In the UAE, Federal Decree Law No. 9 of 2022, governs the relations between an employer and a domestic worker and as per Article 19 of the law, an employer should pay a worker his or her compensation within 10 days from the contract expiry date, as long as there was no breach of contract from the worker’s end.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) even has an online calculator, which determines the end of service benefits based on factors like the salary, annual leave, working period, and the reason for the contract’s termination. Here are some things you need to know about gratuity calculations for domestic workers, and how you can use the online calculator.
Who pays gratuity?
This depends on whether you have hired the worker directly, or through an agency.
• Direct employment – you are responsible for end-of-service benefits.
• Agency recruitment – the agency handles gratuity payments.
What determines the gratuity?
When it comes to domestic workers, the MOHRE online calculator considers the following criteria:
• Basic and net salary
• Working period
• Reason for contract termination
• Unused annual leave
• Overtime work during weekends
• Work injuries (if any)
How to use the MOHRE gratuity calculator domestic workers online
1. Visit the MOHRE website – mohre.gov.ae, and click on Services on the menu tab and then click on ‘Domestic Worker Calculator’.
2. Enter the start and end date of the working period.
3. Enter the net and basic salary.
4. Select the ‘reason for leaving’. You can only select one of the following options:
• Contract ended
• Worker resigned for no reason
• Worker resigned because the employer breached the contract
• Worker dismissed for no reason
• Worker dismissed for breaching the contract
5. Next, enter the following details:
• Specific period salary – if there is a period where you did not pay the domestic worker, enter the days, months or year.
• Annual leave salary – enter the period of unclaimed leave.
• Weekend allowance – enter the days in which you required the domestic worker to work during weekends.
• Work injury – if the domestic worker sustained a work injury, enter the disability percentage.
Note – while you are entering this information, you will see the amount you have to pay and if there is any unclaimed leaves or unpaid salary, the gratuity will increase accordingly.
Once you have entered all the relevant details, you will see the total allowance at the bottom, and you have the option to take a print-out of the breakdown.
Domestic workers from recruitment agencies
If you hired a domestic worker from a recruitment agency and the domestic worker terminates the contract without notice, abandons the employment, or breaches the contract, you are entitled to a reimbursement from the agency, as per Article 6 of Cabinet Resolution No.106 of 2022. For more details on what your rights are when you hire a maid through an approved agency in the UAE, click here.
