UAE labour law for restaurants: the practical parts

A head chef plans the busy season the way the kitchen has always done it: long days for the senior cooks, a rest day when the diary allows and overtime paid as a round sum at the end of the month. Then a cook leaves, asks for an end-of-service payment worked out differently from the one the venue offers and points to the hours on the rota as evidence. The venue had never checked its rota against the law. Nobody meant to break it; nobody knew it well enough to keep it.

UAE labour law for restaurants is the same law that covers every private-sector employer: Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, in force since 2 February 2022, with its Executive Regulations, Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. A restaurant feels it more than most businesses, because its hours are long, its busiest days are other people's days off and its team is often large, international and on contracts written in a hurry.

This guide covers the parts of the law that touch a rota and a restaurant's people: contracts, working hours, breaks, overtime, rest days, holidays, leave, wages, work permits, notice and end of service. It is drawn from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation's published text of the law and its regulations, not from a summary, but it is a guide, not legal advice. Free zones such as DIFC and ADGM have their own employment laws, so check which applies to you. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

The Decree-Law applies to establishments, employers and workers in the UAE private sector. It sets minimum rights: a contract can give a worker more, but not less. Where it leaves details to the Executive Regulations, such as the hours in Ramadan or the categories of workers excluded from some rules, the regulations fill them in.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, often called MOHRE, registers establishments, issues work permits and handles labour complaints. For a restaurant, it is the authority behind most of what follows, and its published text is the version to rely on when a question arises.

Every worker needs a written contract, made on the Ministry's forms, in two copies: one for the employer and one for the worker. The contract states the job, the start date, the workplace, the working hours, the rest days, any probation, the term, the wage with its allowances, the annual leave, the notice period and how the contract ends.

Contracts are for a fixed term and can be renewed by agreement; an amendment in 2022 removed the earlier upper limit on the term. If both sides carry on after the term ends without a new agreement, the contract is treated as extended on the same terms. Keep every contract current, because when a dispute arises, the contract is the first thing anyone reads.

The law recognises several work patterns, and a restaurant can use more than one. Full time means working for one employer for the full daily hours. Part time means a set number of hours or days, possibly for more than one employer. Temporary work is for a set period or task. Flexible work has hours or days that change with the workload.

Flexible and part-time patterns suit a restaurant's uneven week, but they come with their own rules. A part-time worker may not be asked to work more hours than the contract states without their written consent, and their leave and end-of-service benefits are worked out in proportion to their hours. Choose the pattern deliberately, and write it into the contract.

A new worker can be employed on probation for up to six months from their start date, and only once with the same employer. During probation, the employer can end the contract by giving at least fourteen days' written notice.

A worker who wants to leave during probation to join another employer in the UAE must give at least a month's written notice; one who wants to leave the country must give at least fourteen days. Probation counts towards the length of service if the worker stays. Use the period properly: a clear review before it ends is fairer, and safer, than a decision made in a hurry on the last day.

The maximum normal working hours are eight a day or forty-eight a week. The time a worker spends commuting is not counted, except in cases set by the regulations, such as delays caused by bad weather warnings or a breakdown of transport the employer provides, or where the contract says it is.

Some categories are exempt from the maximum hours, including people in supervisory roles who hold the employer's authority, and work that has to run continuously in shifts, provided the average stays within fifty-six hours a week. A restaurant should not assume its managers or chefs are exempt: check the role against the regulations before building a rota on it.

No worker may work more than five consecutive hours without a break, or breaks, of at least an hour in total, and the breaks are not counted as working time. In a venue that works in shifts, the hours and breaks are arranged to suit the shifts and the job.

For a restaurant, that means planning breaks into the rota rather than hoping for a quiet moment. A cook who starts at eleven needs a break before four, whatever the lunch service is doing. A break that is always skipped on busy days is a break the rota never really provided.

Many restaurants use split shifts: lunch, a gap in the afternoon, then dinner. The law counts the working hours, not the hours between arriving and leaving, so a long gap is not working time, but the working hours on either side of it still have to fit the daily limit and the rules on overtime.

Be honest about what the gap is. If staff are expected to stay on site, prepare for the evening or answer the phone during it, the gap is not a break. Write the shift pattern into the contract or the work regulations, so everyone knows which hours are working hours.

An employer may ask a worker to work overtime beyond the normal hours, but not more than two hours a day, except where the work is needed to prevent a serious loss or accident or to deal with its effects. In any case, the total working hours may not exceed 144 every three weeks.

That three-week total is the limit a busy season tests. Six days of ten hours is sixty hours a week, or 180 hours in three weeks, well beyond it. A rota that relies on long weeks for the whole festive season needs more people, not more hours from the same ones.

Overtime is paid at the wage for normal hours, calculated on the basic wage, plus at least 25 per cent. Overtime worked between ten at night and four in the morning is paid at the basic wage plus at least 50 per cent, but workers on shifts are excluded from that higher rate.

Whether a restaurant's late workers count as shift workers for this rule depends on how their work is organised, so take advice before assuming the lower rate applies. Pay overtime on the basic wage as the law sets it, not as a round sum, and keep the hours that support every payment.

Every worker is entitled to a paid weekly rest day of at least one day, as set in the contract or the work regulations. In a restaurant, the rest day often falls on a weekday, because the weekend is the busiest time, and that is allowed as long as the contract says so.

If a worker works on their rest day, they are owed another day off or the day's wage plus at least 50 per cent of the basic wage for that day. A worker may not be asked to work more than two consecutive rest days, except day workers. Build the rest day into the rota first, then the shifts around it.

Workers are entitled to public holidays off with full pay. If the work requires someone to work on a public holiday, they are owed another day off for each day worked, or the wage for that day plus at least 50 per cent of the basic wage for it.

For a restaurant, the holidays are often the busiest days, so the cost of working them belongs in the holiday plan. Our guide to UAE public holidays and the trade they bring covers the holidays and the rota each one needs.

During Ramadan, the normal working hours are reduced by two hours a day, under the Executive Regulations. For a full-time worker on eight hours, that means six hours a day for the month.

A restaurant's busiest hours often move during Ramadan, towards iftar and later in the evening, and the shorter day makes the rota harder to fill. Plan the month's rota early, with the reduced hours built in. Our guide to Ramadan restaurant hours and the service that fits covers how the service itself changes.

Under a ministerial resolution described on the government portal u.ae, work directly under the sun in open places is not allowed between half past twelve and three in the afternoon, from 15 June to 15 September each year.

Most restaurant work is indoors, but some is not: setting up or cleaning a terrace, unloading deliveries in an open yard or carrying goods outside. Plan any outdoor work for the morning or the evening in those months, and give the team shade, water and rest when they must be outside.

A staff rota that respects the law starts with its limits: the daily and weekly hours, the breaks, the rest day, the three-week overtime total and the holidays. Build those in first, then fill the shifts from the forecast, rather than writing the shifts and checking the law afterwards.

Share the rota well in advance, and keep the changes to a minimum. A rota that changes every day makes it hard to know who has worked how many hours. Our guide to a staff rota that survives first contact covers how to build one that holds.

Keep a record of the hours each person actually works: when they started, their breaks, when they finished and any overtime. The rota shows what was planned; the record shows what happened, and when there is a dispute about overtime or rest days, it is the record that counts.

The simplest record is one the team confirms each week. A sheet signed by each person, or a clocking system the whole team uses, protects both the venue and the worker, and makes overtime pay a calculation rather than an argument.

After a year of service, a worker is entitled to at least thirty days of paid annual leave a year. After six months but before a year, they are entitled to two days for each month. The employer may set the dates according to the needs of the work, in agreement with the worker, and must tell the worker the dates at least a month ahead.

Public holidays that fall during a worker's annual leave count as part of the leave, unless the contract or the venue's rules are more generous. A worker may carry forward up to half of their leave to the next year with the employer's agreement, and unused leave is paid when the service ends.

A restaurant's year has busy seasons when nobody can be spared and quiet months when leave costs least. Agree leave early, spread it across the quiet months and keep a calendar the whole team can see, so two key people are never away at once.

Many team members will want leave at the same times, often around the holidays that matter most to them, to travel home. Share those times fairly from year to year. A leave plan agreed in January causes far fewer arguments than requests handled one by one.

A worker who falls ill must tell the employer within three working days and provide a medical report. There is no paid sick leave during probation, though the employer may grant unpaid sick leave on a medical report.

After probation, a worker may take up to ninety days of sick leave a year, continuous or not: the first fifteen days on full pay, the next thirty on half pay and the rest unpaid. In a kitchen, a cook who is ill should not be handling food, so make it easy for the team to report illness early rather than working through it.

The law sets several other kinds of paid leave. Bereavement leave is five days for the death of a husband or wife, and three days for the death of a parent, child, brother, sister, grandchild or grandparent. Parental leave is five working days, for either parent, within six months of a child's birth.

A worker studying at an approved institution may be given ten working days a year to sit exams, once they have two years of service. Maternity leave is sixty days: forty-five on full pay and fifteen on half pay. A worker may not be dismissed because of pregnancy or maternity leave.

Wages are paid on their due dates, in dirhams unless the contract agrees another currency. Under the Executive Regulations, every establishment registered with the Ministry pays its workers through the Wage Protection System, the WPS, or another system the Ministry approves, and must be able to prove the payments when asked.

The WPS gives the Ministry a record of every wage paid. Late or missing payments show up, and the Ministry can refuse to issue or renew work permits for an establishment that does not comply. Pay on time every month, and keep the payroll records alongside the hours that support them.

The law limits what an employer may deduct from wages. Deductions are allowed only for set reasons, such as repaying a loan the worker agreed in writing, recovering an overpayment, a penalty under the venue's approved rules or damage the worker caused, each with its own cap. A penalty may not exceed five per cent of the wage, and all deductions together may not exceed half of it.

A restaurant cannot deduct whatever it likes. Even for damage a worker caused to the venue's equipment or stock through their own mistake, the deduction is limited to five days' wage a month, and more needs a court's approval. If a deduction is needed, check that the law allows it, keep within its limit and record why it was made.

No one may work in the UAE, and no employer may recruit or employ a worker, without a work permit from the Ministry. The employer may not charge the worker, directly or indirectly, for the fees and costs of recruiting and employing them. Employing someone without a permit carries a fine of at least AED 100,000.

The regulations set out several kinds of permit: for recruiting from abroad, for transferring a worker already in the UAE, for residents sponsored by their families, and for temporary, part-time and other kinds of work. The residence visa and Emirates ID follow through the immigration authorities, usually with a medical fitness test. Start early: a new hire from abroad can take weeks to arrive.

Hiring someone already in the UAE is often quicker. A worker whose contract has ended can usually move to a new employer through a transfer permit, and a resident sponsored by their family can work with a permit of their own.

Some cases limit a move. A foreign worker who leaves the country during probation without giving the required notice, or who abandons a job without a legitimate reason before the contract ends, may be refused a new permit for a year, though the regulations make exceptions. Check a candidate's position before making an offer that depends on a start date.

Either side can end a contract for a legitimate reason with written notice. The notice period is set in the contract, at least thirty days and at most ninety, and it should be the same for both sides unless a difference favours the worker. The worker is paid in full during the notice period and works it if the employer asks.

A side that does not give the notice owes the other the wage for the notice period, or the part of it not worked. If the worker is on leave when notice is given, the notice period starts only after the day they are due back, unless both sides agree otherwise.

When a contract ends, the employer must pay the worker their wages and all other entitlements within fourteen days. That includes the final month's wage, any unused annual leave, any overtime still owed and the end-of-service benefit.

Prepare the final settlement before the last day, not after it. A worker who leaves without their final pay, or with a figure nobody can explain, is the most likely to complain to the Ministry, and the restaurant's own records are its only defence.

A full-time foreign worker who has completed at least a year of continuous service is entitled to an end-of-service benefit, often called the gratuity, worked out on the last basic wage: twenty-one days' wage for each of the first five years, and thirty days' wage for each year after that. Parts of a year count in proportion, once the first year is complete.

Unpaid days of absence are not counted in the service, and the whole benefit may not exceed two years' wage. Part-time workers' benefits are worked out in proportion to their hours, and temporary work of less than a year carries none. UAE nationals are covered by the pensions law instead.

An invented brasserie has a sous chef leaving after seven years of continuous service. For the first five years, the benefit is twenty-one days of basic wage a year: 105 days. For the two years after, it is thirty days a year: 60 days. The benefit is 165 days of the sous chef's last basic wage, well within the two-year cap.

The venue also owes the final month's wage, eleven days of unused annual leave and two weeks of overtime recorded in the last month. It prepares the settlement during the notice period, checks it against the contract and the hours records, and pays it all within fourteen days of the contract's end.

servearound has no rota, timesheets, clocking in or payroll, so it records no working hours, and staff rotas are coming but not yet in it. The hours, the leave and the pay in this guide are kept in your own records and payroll.

What it does hold is the trading picture a rota is built from. Reservation analytics show covers by day and by day and hour, so the busy hours that need the most people are visible, and the team's roles and the venues each member works in are set in servearound, with each person signing in to shared screens with their own PIN. See Analytics and Reservations.

Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and its Executive Regulations, for the private sector. Some free zones, such as DIFC and ADGM, have their own.

Normally eight a day or forty-eight a week, with breaks after five hours.

Up to two hours a day, with total hours of no more than 144 every three weeks.

The basic wage plus at least 25 per cent, or at least 50 per cent between ten at night and four in the morning, except for shift workers.

They are owed another day off, or the day's wage plus at least 50 per cent of the basic wage.

At least thirty days a year after a year, and two days a month after six months.

Twenty-one days' basic wage for each of the first five years and thirty for each year after, capped at two years' wage.

Within fourteen days of the contract's end.

UAE labour law for restaurants is the private-sector law, Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, with its regulations. Its working hours are eight a day or forty-eight a week, with a break after five hours and fewer hours in Ramadan; overtime is capped at two hours a day and 144 hours in three weeks, and paid at a premium on the basic wage. Every worker gets a paid weekly rest day, and work on a rest day or public holiday earns a day off or extra pay.

Build the staff rota around those limits, record the hours actually worked and plan leave across the year. Pay wages through the WPS, deduct only what the law allows, arrange work permits before anyone starts, give the notice the contract sets and pay the final settlement, with the end-of-service benefit, within fourteen days.