Can you take sick leave during your notice period? What the UAE Labour Law says

Dubai: If you’ve given in your notice at work, are you entitled to take leave if you fall sick? The UAE’s Labour Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, provides a clear breakdown of the sick leaves an employee is entitled to, and how an employee should apply for a sick leave, if required. Sick leave during notice period Hari Wadhwana, an Associate at Horizons & Co., said that under the UAE’s Labour Law, there is no prohibition on an employee's entitlement to take sick leave during the notice period. According to Wadhwana, the only exception in the Labour Law pertaining to sick leaves is related to the probation period. “Article 31(2) of the Federal Labour Law carves out the only relevant exception, providing that an employee is not entitled to paid sick leave is during the probation period. Article 31(3) similarly confirms that, once probation is complete, an employee is entitled to sick leave of up to ninety days per year. The restriction, in other words, applies only during probation,” he added. Hari Wadhwana, an Associate at Horizons & Co. When you cannot take sick leave Another exception mentioned in the UAE Labour Law, Wadhwana said, pertains to sickness that may have resulted due to the employee’s own misconduct. An employee is not eligible for a sick leave if the sickness originated from the employee’s own misconduct or if the employee fell sick due to violation of the safety instructions, he said. How to apply for sick leave If you do plan to take a sick leave during your notice period, you should inform your manager or employer in time and also provide a health certificate issued by the hospital or clinic that is treating you. “Article 31(1) of the Federal Labour Law sets out clear timelines within which an employee must report sickness to the employer,” Wadhwana said. “The provision requires the employee to inform the employer, or the employer's representative (such as a line manager), of the sickness within three working days, together with a copy of the medical report issued by the treating medical facility. On a plain reading of the Federal Labour Law, both the notification and the supporting medical report are mandatory,” he added. Sick leave entitlement Employees working in the UAE’s private sector are entitled to 90 days of sick leave , which is calculated as follows: The first 15 days with full pay. The following 30 days with half pay. The following period unpaid. Will taking a sick leave automatically extend my notice period? According to Wadhwana, taking sick leave during your notice period does not mean you will need to serve additional number of days as part of your notice period. “Under no circumstances can the notice period be extended under the Federal Labour Law. Where an employee has accrued sick leave for the year (i.e. up to ninety days), that leave can be utilised without affecting the notice period,” he said. Your notice period will, however, be affected if you exhaust your sick leave entitlement for the year. In such cases, any further leave taken during the notice period will not be treated as sick leave, but rather as unserved notice. “In that scenario, Article 43(3) of the Federal Labour Law applies, and the employee must compensate the employer by paying a sum equivalent to the salary for the days of notice not actually served,” Wadhwana added. “For example, if the employee takes a leave of one day during notice period which is not accounted towards sick leave (for reasons that all sick leaves are exhausted), then employee needs to pay employer his salary equivalent of one day as compensation,” he added. When can sick leave be considered unauthorised? Failing to follow due process for taking the sick leave, like informing the employer in time and providing a medical certificate, would result in the leave being deemed ‘unauthorised’. As per Article 43(3) of the UAE Labour Law, that would require an employee to compensate the employer for the missed work days. “If the sick leave taken is not compliant with the Federal Labour Law, it will be treated as a failure by the employee to serve the notice period, exposing the employee to liability to compensate the employer for the days missed,” Wadhwana said. According to Article 43 (3), the compensation should be equal to the worker's wage for the entire notice period or the remaining part of it.