UAE Maternity Leave: "I'm pregnant. Could I lose my job?"

Furthermore, if your employer reacts badly to the news of your pregnancy and refuses to pay your UAE maternity leave, or even fires you from the job as a result, do you have any legal recourse? And has this changed since the onset of the pandemic?

"…They said this is because I haven’t completed my one year yet...

…”What can I do? What are my rights being pregnant?”

Here, Anna Marshall and her colleagues at Al Tamimi & Company law firm explain the legal rights of pregnant women in the UAE, how your probation period affects your maternity pay and the impact that the pandemic has had on maternity leave rights in the UAE…

However, if a pregnant woman is dismissed without a valid reason (i.e. other than due to her performance or conduct), she can file an employment claim in the UAE Labour Court...

The employee would receive compensation if the Court ultimately determined that she had been dismissed without a valid reason (bearing in mind that pregnancy in itself is not a valid reason for dismissal)...

This compensation would be in addition to her contractual and statutory entitlements such as end of service gratuity.

However, the employer is not permitted to reduce the employee’s salary without her written consent, as salary is a fundamental term of employment.

However, if an employer did so, the employee’s only legal recourse would be to file a compensation claim against her employer in the UAE Labour Court. In other words, the Court would not require the employer to reinstate the employee to her position/role in the company, even if she had been dismissed while on maternity leave.

This would be 3 months’ gross salary (in addition to the employee’s contractual and statutory entitlements such as end of service gratuity) and potentially the remaining balance of the maternity pay due to her.

This is in contrast to women working in the private sector of the UAE who have completed 12 months of continuous service at the date of her child's birth, who are entitled to 45 calendar days of leave at full pay. Maternity leave pay in both scenarios is gross salary, meaning it is inclusive of both basic and allowances.

Nor has the pandemic affected the terms in which an employer can lawfully terminate an employee’s contract of employment…

This provides procedural guidance to protect all employees (not just pregnant employees or those on maternity leave) in circumstances where a company seeks to terminate employees during the application of the precautionary COVID-19 measures by the UAE government…

These are: (i) the individual exiting the UAE; (ii) the individual obtaining the necessary authorisations to work for another establishment or; (iii) the repeal of the Ministerial Resolution.

…In this instance the employee would be entitled to pursue a claim before the Labour Courts for the unpaid salaries.

…If the claimed amount is above Dh100,000 then the court fees will be 5% of the claimed amount, capped at Dh20,000.