An employment contract that ignores which UAE regime actually governs the relationship is a document waiting to fail at the wrong moment.
In 2026 we revised and gave local sign-off on a multinational diagnostics group's UAE limited-term employment contract. That meant a group-standard data-privacy clause, amendments from the HR side, and a memo confirming the contract held up under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 (as amended), its Executive Regulations, the PDPL and the relevant free-zone employment regimes. We are separately running an enforcement action on post-employment restrictive covenants.
On the contentious side, we appear before the Abu Dhabi First Instance Court Employment Division and on cassation before the Federal Supreme Court. One current cassation matter concerns twenty-five years of accrued service against a UAE energy operator.
“Get the governing regime wrong and the contract fails at the worst possible moment.”
We advise on end-of-service gratuity, the DIFC and ADGM workplace-savings frameworks, and dealings with the GPSSA where Emirati employees fall under the federal pension regime. The contract, the policy and the filings have to say the same thing.