How to Claim Work Injury Compensation in the UAE: Steps, Amounts, Documents and Deadlines

In short: As of November 2026, a UAE private sector worker hurt at work, or on the normal route to or from it, is owed treatment, wages while off work and, after a final medical report, compensation of up to 24 months of basic wage (AED 18,000 to AED 200,000). The employer must report the case within 48 hours. Unpaid claims go to MOHRE first, then to court.

This guide walks through a work injury claim in the order it actually happens: what qualifies, what your employer must do in the first two days, how long your pay continues, how the disability percentage turns into a dirham amount, the complaint and court route if payment stalls, the papers to keep, every deadline in one table, and the separate rules for domestic workers and free zone staff.

On 1 November 2026 we went back to the primary texts rather than summaries: the Labour Relations Decree-Law and its Executive Regulation on the UAE Legislation portal, Cabinet Resolution No. 33 of 2022 with its three schedules and Ministerial Resolution No. 657 of 2022 (both as PDFs from MOHRE), the Domestic Workers Decree-Law, MOHRE’s complaint service card and its January 2023 guidance on workplace injuries, and the u.ae pages on workplace safety and labour disputes. Where an English version says it is not an official translation, the Arabic text is the one that counts. For the wording of each article, read our labour law chapter on work injuries, safety and discipline; this page is about getting paid.

Does your injury count as a work injury?

The Decree-Law defines a work injury as any injury that arises from your work and happens while you are doing it, plus any occupational disease on the Cabinet’s official list (Article 1). Two details decide most borderline cases: the commute rule and the exclusions in Article 38.

The listed occupational diseases cover poisoning by lead, mercury, arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, petroleum products and benzene, manganese, sulphur and chloroform or carbon tetrachloride; illness from radium, radioactive material or X-rays; chronic skin disease and skin or eye burns from tar, mineral oil, cement or flour dust; eye damage from intense heat and light; lung disease from silica, asbestos or cotton dust; anthrax; and infections such as pulmonary tuberculosis and enteric fever among hospital staff treating those patients. The Minister can update this list with the Ministry of Health and Prevention (Article 8 of the resolution).

The police report states whether the case falls under an exclusion, but the medical authority makes the final call on whether a work injury happened at all (Cabinet Resolution No. 33 of 2022, Article 4).

What must your employer do in the first 48 hours?

Cabinet Resolution No. 33 of 2022 and Ministerial Resolution No. 657 of 2022 give the employer three reporting duties, and they run in parallel rather than one after another:

1. The medical authority: notified as soon as the employer learns of the injury or a suspected occupational disease.
2. The police: immediately for an accident, through the station that covers the workplace. For an occupational disease, the report must state the date the employer learned of it.
3. MOHRE, within 48 hours: through the Ministry’s website or app or a business service centre. The report carries your name, age, ID number, job, nationality, workplace, the severity of the injury, a short account of the accident and the treatment arranged. Serious events such as a building collapse, fire, explosion, fall from height or a traffic accident on the way to or from work must be reported at once.

Each report goes automatically into the national work injury system, and MOHRE inspects establishments with recorded injuries. Its procedure guide lists three outcomes that lead to a violation report and an administrative fine: no report within 48 hours, no compensation, or false data.

Employers with 50 or more workers must also run an injury monitoring system: an injury register, a list of hazardous jobs, periodic medical checks for people in them, and records of exposed workers kept for at least five years after they leave. If your employer agrees to pay for treatment outside the UAE, it must give MOHRE proof of that agreement.

Who pays for treatment, and what do you earn while off work?

The employer pays for treatment at any government or private health facility until you recover or a disability is confirmed. Under Article 23 of the Executive Regulation, that bill includes hospital stays, surgery, X-rays, laboratory tests, medicines, rehabilitation equipment, artificial limbs and prostheses, and your transport to and from treatment. Whether your employer funds this through insurance is its own arrangement; the legal duty sits with the employer.

While the injury keeps you from working, Article 37(2)(b) sets your pay in two blocks. It uses the word “wage”, which the Decree-Law defines as basic pay plus cash allowances and benefits in kind, so this is your full package, not only the basic salary.

Two job protections run alongside this. Ministerial Resolution No. 657 of 2022 bars the employer from ending the relationship or cancelling the contract of an injured or sick worker before paying all dues, and compensation must be settled before any termination step. If you want to leave before the medical committee reports, the employer must tell MOHRE and your rights under the later report are kept. Separately, Article 46 of the Decree-Law stops an employer from ending a contract for medical unfitness before you have used your legal leave entitlements.

How much compensation is due?

The amount is fixed by formula, not negotiated. Ministerial Resolution No. 657 of 2022 says it is calculated on the last basic wage you received, and paid within 10 days of the medical report that states your disability percentage.

Schedule 2 rates seven conditions at 100%, which counts as total disability: loss of both arms from the shoulder or of any two or more limbs, total loss of sight, total paralysis, total mental incapacity, head injuries causing constant headache, total disfigurement of the face, and chest or internal organ injuries that permanently stop normal function. Schedule 3 lists 45 partial disabilities. A selection:

Three rules in Article 7 of the resolution adjust the table. Losing all use of a limb or organ counts the same as losing it. For a left-handed worker, the left hand is rated at the right-hand percentage. Disfigurement or damage to a sense that the table does not list is rated by the competent medical authority.

One reading point: the English version of Ministerial Resolution No. 657 of 2022 places the AED 18,000 and AED 200,000 limits in the same sentence as the partial disability formula. MOHRE’s own published example (basic wage AED 1,000, 25% disability, compensation AED 6,000) shows the percentage is applied to the death compensation figure and the result itself is not lifted to AED 18,000. Our examples follow MOHRE’s method.

Worked examples (fictional workers)

The people below are invented to show the arithmetic. Your own figures depend on your contract, your last basic wage and the percentage in your approved medical report.

Two patterns are worth knowing. The AED 200,000 cap bites from a basic wage of about AED 8,334 a month, so on a large package the cap, not the salary, sets the figure. And because the formula uses basic wage only, a contract with a low basic and high allowances produces a smaller award than the total pay suggests, while the wage during treatment still follows the full package.

How to claim, step by step

1. Get treated and tell your employer in writing the same day. A message to your manager or HR with the date, time, place and what happened creates a record that the employer knew.
2. Ask for the MOHRE report reference. The employer must file within 48 hours. If it refuses or claims the injury was not work-related, keep its reply; it becomes evidence.
3. Cooperate with the police investigation. Give your statement when your condition allows. The police file records whether any Article 38 exclusion applies, and MOHRE receives a copy.
4. Finish treatment and obtain the final medical report. At the end of treatment the treating facility writes up the injury, its cause, its link to work, the treatment period and any permanent disability with its percentage. A government health authority approves it on the recommendation of a specialised medical committee, and copies go to you, the employer and MOHRE.
5. Request payment in writing. Quote the approved percentage, your last basic wage and the 10-day payment rule, and attach the report.
6. File a labour complaint with MOHRE if nothing arrives. Use the “Register Labour Complaints – Private Sector Employees” service on the MOHRE website or app. MOHRE lists no service fee and a 14 working day handling time. Our MOHRE complaint guide covers the screens and the hearing call.
7. Let the claim value set the route. MOHRE first tries an amicable settlement. Below or at AED 50,000 it then decides the dispute itself; above that, it refers the file to the court with a memorandum. At that stage you need a lawyer.

The court rules on Article 54 in more depth are set out in our disputes chapter of the labour law library. In Dubai, a referred case is registered through the Dubai Courts labour case service online, at its headquarters or at a government service centre. The service card asks for the referral as a PDF, a statement of case with a bundle of supporting papers, and Arabic translations by a legal translator approved by the Ministry of Justice. It lists a court fee of 5% on worker claims above AED 100,000, capped at AED 20,000; the wording on the card is unclear, so confirm the figure with the court before you pay.

Documents to collect

• Passport, Emirates ID and the MOHRE work permit or labour card number
• Employment contract and recent payslips or WPS records showing basic wage and allowances separately
• Your written notice to the employer and any reply
• Photos of the scene, names and numbers of witnesses
• The police report number
• All hospital and clinic records, sick notes, invoices and receipts, including taxi or transport costs to treatment
• The final medical report with the disability percentage and its approval
• For a death claim: the death certificate, proof of family relationship and any instructions the worker left about payment

Deadlines that can cost you the claim

The u.ae labour dispute page (updated 12 August 2026) still quotes a one-year limit. The consolidated Decree-Law on the legislation portal and MOHRE’s own consolidated PDF both show two years after the 2024 amendment. Treat the earlier date as your safe target: a claim filed while you are still employed, or soon after, is far easier to prove.

What if the employer has no insurance or refuses to pay?

Missing insurance does not cancel the claim. The Decree-Law places treatment, wages and compensation on the employer itself, and nothing in Article 37 makes the duty depend on a policy. A refusal therefore becomes a labour complaint like any other unpaid entitlement, with some extra pressure points:

• MOHRE’s inspection procedure treats failure to compensate and failure to report within 48 hours as violations that lead to a violation report and an administrative fine.
• Serious injuries that cause disability or death because safety rules were not applied are on the list of violations that can move a company to the third tier, explained in our MOHRE company category guide.
• During a dispute, MOHRE may order the employer to keep paying your wage for up to two months where the dispute stopped your salary (Decree-Law, Article 54(5)).
• The contract may not be cancelled until your dues are paid, so do not sign a cancellation or a final settlement that leaves out the compensation.

Your end-of-service gratuity is a separate entitlement and is not reduced by the injury award; see our gratuity guide for that figure.

Domestic workers

Domestic workers are outside the Labour Relations Decree-Law (Article 3) and fall under Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022 on domestic workers. Article 11(9) of that law makes the employer pay compensation for work injuries and occupational diseases at the amounts set by Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and its implementing decisions, and the employer stays liable unless an insurance company pays that compensation. Disputes go to MOHRE first under Article 23, which decides claims up to AED 50,000 and refers larger unsettled ones to the Court of First Instance. MOHRE runs a separate complaint service for domestic workers. We have no dedicated domestic worker law page yet, so check the portal text before acting.

Free zone employees

The DIFC and ADGM run their own employment laws (DIFC Employment Law No. 2 of 2019, last consolidated in July 2025, and the ADGM Employment Regulations 2019) and their own courts, where employment claims are heard. The steps on this page follow the federal Labour Law, so an injured DIFC or ADGM employee should speak to a lawyer who practises in those courts before relying on them.

For other free zones, the Dubai Courts labour case service accepts a referral either from MOHRE or from a free zone authority approved by the Ministry, which means the first complaint may sit with the zone rather than MOHRE. We did not verify zone-by-zone injury procedures for DMCC or the other zones on 1 November 2026, so ask your free zone’s employee relations desk which channel takes your case before you file anywhere.

Common mistakes

• Waiting weeks to tell the employer in writing, which lets it argue the injury happened elsewhere.
• Calling a commute accident “personal” after stopping off on the way, without checking whether the stop broke the route rule.
• Being paid only the basic salary during the first six months, when the law says full wage.
• Accepting a lump sum before the final medical report sets the percentage.
• Signing a contract cancellation or full and final settlement that does not mention the injury compensation.
• Missing a treatment session or refusing a prescribed procedure without a medical reason, which Article 38(5) can turn into a lost claim.
• Assuming you have only one year, or that you have unlimited time: the current limit is two years from the end of employment.

How MIRDXB PRO can help, and where we stop

Our part is the paperwork around the claim: reading your file, calculating the figure the schedules give, drafting the written payment request, typing and submitting the MOHRE labour complaint, and organising the contract, payslips and medical documents MOHRE asks for. We do not represent anyone at MOHRE hearings or in court, we do not give legal opinions, and we never promise an outcome; the amount is decided by the medical report, MOHRE or the court. For a court claim, appoint a lawyer licensed in the UAE. MIRDXB PRO is a PRO and visa services firm in Al Barsha 1, Dubai, not MOHRE, not a law firm and not a partner of any government body. Our published service prices are on the fees page; complaint work for an injury case is quoted as one fixed price after the file check.

Frequently asked questions