In brief The scope of the UAE’s mandatory employee unemployment insurance scheme has been extended. Effective immediately, all employees in the UAE (except for employees employed by the local government) must register within the required timeline. This includes employees employed by free zone companies. You can view a summary of the scheme in our previous client alert. What’s next? Registration All employees in the UAE must enroll with the unemployment insurance scheme and commence paying insurance…
Under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 and its executive implementing regulations (“New Labour Law”) which entered into effect in February 2022, all employee unlimited term contracts required be converted to fixed term contracts. A grace period of up to 1 February 2023 was put in place for all contract conversions in the UAE. Failure to meet the deadline risked penalties being imposed. However, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) has recently…
In brief The UAE Government has recently announced legislation requiring employees in the Federal Government and private sector to register in an unemployment insurance scheme. The scheme is designed to provide financial support to employees in the event that the employee loses their job. What do employees need to do? Employees must register with an unemployment insurance scheme starting from 1 January 2023.Unemployment insurance schemes are provided by a number of selected insurance providers in…
What has changed? The maximum three-year limit for fixed term contracts has been removed. While contracts still require to be for a limited term, employers now have flexibility with regards to the length of the term. We have already prepared and have been using our new contract templates (and issued contract amendments converting unlimited term contracts to limited term contracts). Do we need to change all of our contracts again? Unlikely. We expect that the…
Increasing the number of UAE nationals in the private sector has long been a key objective for the government. In the past, the UAE government has launched a significant number of laws and initiatives to support the localisation of the workforce. The government has recently increased its efforts in this regard and introduced a suite of new laws, including an obligation to recruit Emirati employees at the rate of 2% per year, to drive forward…