Key takeaways
- Your employer is in default once 15 days have passed from the due date — or sooner, if your contract specifies a shorter period. Before that, it is late; after that, it is a violation.
- MoHRE already knows. Non-compliant establishments are sent alerts on the third and tenth days after the due date, and on the seventeenth day the Ministry suspends their services.
- There is a confidential salary complaint — submitted without your identity being disclosed to your employer. Most people have never heard of it, and it is the right first move in almost every case.
- Keep working and keep records. Walking out is the single most damaging thing you can do, and it closes off the temporary work permit route.
- Claims of AED 50,000 or less can be decided by MoHRE directly with a final executive decision, rather than going to court.
An unpaid salary is not only a financial problem. It is a problem with a clock on it, a specific escalation path, and a set of moves that work far better in one order than another.
This guide sets out that order. It is written for the person whose pay has not arrived and who needs to know what to do this week — not a summary of the law.
Sources are Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, and the Official Portal of the UAE Government. Where a figure or a procedure is stated below, it comes from one of those.
Step one: establish that it is actually late
This sounds pedantic. It is not — every subsequent step depends on being able to state a due date and a number of days.
| Question | The published position |
|---|---|
| When is my wage due? | From the first day of the month following the expiry of the period for which the wage is specified in the employment contract. |
| What if my contract doesn’t specify a period? | You must be paid at least once a month. |
| When is the employer legally in default? | If the wage is not paid within the first 15 days after the due date — unless a shorter period is agreed in the contract. |
| How must it be paid? | Through the Wage Protection System, into an account with a bank or financial institution authorised by the Central Bank. Employers registered with MoHRE must subscribe to WPS. |
1. The due date — the first day of the month following the pay period.
2. Today’s date.
3. The gap in days.
Under 15 days, your employer is late but not yet in default — though the Ministry is already sending them alerts. At 15 days and beyond, they are in default and you have a clear factual statement to make in a complaint: “My wage for [month] was due on [date]. It is now [date]. I have not been paid.”
That sentence, with real dates, is worth more than three paragraphs of frustration.
The clock is already running on your employer’s side
One thing worth understanding immediately: the Ministry does not need you to tell it that a company has missed payroll. WPS shows it.
| Day after due date | What happens to the establishment |
|---|---|
| Day 3 | Notice and alert issued by the Ministry |
| Day 10 | Second notice and alert issued |
| Day 15 | The employer is now in default under the law |
| Day 17 | The Ministry suspends services to the non-compliant establishment |
Beyond that, an establishment in violation faces suspension of all work permits issued to it, administrative fines under Cabinet Resolution No. 21 of 2020, and reclassification to category three — the worst classification tier, which makes every future government transaction more expensive and more difficult.
Our guide to WPS covers the employer side in full: how blocks work, why files get rejected, and how a blocked establishment clears itself.
Two practical consequences.
First, if your employer is telling you the delay is a bank issue or a technicality, the establishment’s own service suspension at day 17 will tell you otherwise. A company that has genuinely just had a transfer bounce fixes it inside a week.
Second, you are almost certainly not the only one. If payroll has missed, it has missed for everyone on WPS. That changes what you should do next — see the section on acting alone versus together.
Step two: what not to do
This section comes before the action steps deliberately. Most of the serious damage in unpaid-salary cases is self-inflicted in the first fortnight, by people acting on entirely understandable anger.
| Do not | Why |
|---|---|
| Stop attending work | The most damaging move available. An unexplained absence can be reported, and a worker who fails to turn up is expressly excluded from the temporary work permit that would otherwise let you work elsewhere while your case is heard. You lose your best card. |
| Resign in writing without advice | A plain resignation may be treated as an ordinary departure. There is a specific route for leaving because the employer is in breach — use that one, not this one. |
| Sign a settlement or release to “get something” | A signed release can close off the rest of the claim. Get the figure checked first. |
| Accept cash outside WPS as a solution | It resolves this month and destroys your evidence. See the section on partial payments. |
| Hand over your passport | Your passport is your document. An employer has no right to retain it. If it is being held, raise that with MoHRE as part of your complaint. |
| Threaten publicly or on social media | It does not accelerate anything, and it can create separate legal exposure for you. The process below is faster and safer. |
| Wait for six months hoping it resolves | Time limits apply to labour claims, evidence goes stale, and companies that are not paying wages are often heading somewhere worse. |
This is the one that turns a recoverable situation into a serious one. An employee who stops attending because they have not been paid can find an absence report filed against them — and now they are defending their own status rather than pursuing a wage claim.
Being owed money is not a defence to simply disappearing. The law provides a procedure for leaving an employer who is in breach, and it requires you to notify the Ministry first. Use it. Our guide to absence reports sets out what is triggered and how it is resolved.
Step three: build the file — today
Whatever route you take, it will run on documents. Assemble them now, while you still have access to your work email and HR systems — access is usually cut the moment a dispute becomes formal.
| Document | What it proves |
|---|---|
| Signed employment contract | The wage figure, the pay period, and any shorter payment period agreed |
| Offer letter and any revision letters | The current agreed salary if it has changed |
| Payslips — last 12 months | The normal payment pattern, and when it broke |
| Bank statements showing salary credits | The dates money actually arrived — the strongest evidence you have |
| Emirates ID and passport copy | Identity for the complaint |
| Work permit / labour card details | Confirms you are registered against this establishment |
| Every message about the delay | Emails, WhatsApp, memos — especially any admission that pay is late |
| Attendance evidence | That you kept working — access logs, rotas, emails sent, delivery records |
A bank statement showing twelve months of salary credits on or around the same date, and then nothing, states the whole case in one page. It is neutral, third-party, dated and hard to argue with.
Download the PDF from your banking app now and email it to a personal address. Do the same with your contract and payslips. This takes ten minutes and it is the difference between a straightforward complaint and a difficult one.
Get the delay acknowledged in writing
If nothing in your file contains the employer admitting the delay, create it — carefully and without hostility. A short email works:
“Dear [name], my salary for [month], due on [date], has not yet been credited. Could you confirm when the transfer will be processed? Thank you.”
Factual, polite, dated, and it names the month and the due date. Almost any reply is useful to you — a promised date, an admission of a cash-flow problem, or an instruction to wait. Silence is also informative, and now it is a documented silence.
Send it by email rather than WhatsApp where you can, because it timestamps cleanly and survives a phone being lost or a group being deleted.
Acting alone versus acting together
If payroll has missed, it has usually missed for everyone. That raises an obvious question, and the honest answer is that it cuts both ways.
Several individual complaints from the same establishment tell the Ministry something a single complaint does not, and each person keeps control of their own claim and their own timing. Coordinated action can also make individuals identifiable, which matters if you are relying on the confidentiality of the salary complaint described below.
Our practical view: file your own complaint on your own facts, and tell colleagues they can do the same. Do not organise a collective walkout — that reintroduces the absence problem for everyone involved, and the Ministry’s own inspection route achieves the same visibility without the risk.
Step four: the confidential salary complaint
This is the part almost nobody knows about, and in most unpaid-wage situations it is the correct first move.
MoHRE operates a dedicated service — My Salary Complaint — described as a confidential complaint by an employee about the establishment’s failure to pay wages on time, without disclosing the identity of the complainant to the employer.
That is materially different from an ordinary labour complaint, which is a dispute between named parties. This one is a report that triggers an inspection.
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it is | A confidential complaint about the establishment’s failure to pay wages on time |
| Confidentiality | Your identity is not disclosed to the employer |
| Who can use it | Workers registered in the Ministry’s database |
| Who cannot | An employee who already has a pending complaint or a dispute before the court |
| What you provide | Passport number, name, date of birth, nationality |
| Identity confirmation | An OTP by SMS or email — except for requests submitted through the smart application |
| What happens next | Investigated by the competent officer. If the complaint proves true, it is referred to the Labour Inspection Department for a visit to the establishment. |
| Following it up | MoHRE inquiry services at mohre.gov.ae, the MoHRE smart app, or 046659999 |
It does not name you to your employer. The single biggest reason people wait months before acting is fear of retaliation. This route addresses that directly.
It produces an inspection, not a negotiation. A labour complaint puts you across a table from your employer. A salary complaint sends the Labour Inspection Department to their premises.
It is proportionate. Many non-payments are genuine cash-flow failures rather than refusals. An inspection frequently produces payment without anyone’s employment ending.
You keep your job while it runs. You continue attending, continue accruing service, and continue to be paid once the problem is fixed.
You cannot use this service if you already have a pending complaint or a court dispute on the same matter.
This means sequence matters. If you file a full labour complaint first, you have closed off the confidential route. If you start here and it does not resolve the position, the labour complaint remains open to you.
Start with the confidential complaint unless you have a specific reason not to.
Before you file
| Check | Why |
|---|---|
| Are you registered in the Ministry’s database? | Required. If you are on a valid MoHRE work permit you will be. If your employment was never registered, that is itself a violation — raise it. |
| Do you have a pending complaint or court case? | If yes, this route is unavailable and you continue through the existing case. |
| Is your phone number and email current in MoHRE’s records? | The OTP goes there. An old number stalls the application before it starts. |
| Do you have your passport number exactly as registered? | A mismatch with the Ministry’s record will fail the identity check. |
| Have you saved your evidence off company systems? | Do this before, not after. |
What to expect afterwards
Be realistic about the shape of this. A competent officer investigates; if the complaint is substantiated, the file goes to Labour Inspection for a site visit. That is an administrative process with its own pace, and you will not get a running commentary.
What you should do is keep attending work, keep your file current, and follow up through the inquiry services or on 046659999 rather than assuming silence means nothing is happening. Note the reference number when you submit — every subsequent conversation will start with it.
The service is confidential, but small workplaces are small. If you are pressured, threatened, or your position suddenly deteriorates, document it — dates, what was said, who was present — and raise it with MoHRE. Retaliation against a worker for pursuing a lawful entitlement is itself a matter for the Ministry, and our guide to filing a labour complaint covers how that is treated.
The advisory line
If you are unsure which route applies to your situation, MoHRE operates a Labour Claims and Advisory Call Centre on the toll-free number 80084. It is free, it is the Ministry’s own service, and a five-minute call before you file is worth more than a week of reading.
MoHRE’s general call centre is 600590000, and applications submitted through the salary complaint service are followed up on 046659999. Complaints and services are also available through the MoHRE smart app and mohre.gov.ae.
Step five: escalating to a full labour complaint
If the confidential route does not produce payment, or if the employment relationship has already broken down, the next stage is an individual labour complaint. The mechanics are covered in detail in our MoHRE complaint guide — here is what specifically matters when the claim is unpaid wages.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Submission | Filed through MoHRE — the app, the website, or a service centre |
| Amicable settlement | The Ministry examines the complaint and attempts settlement between the parties. A complaint is to be resolved within 14 days of submission. |
| Claims of AED 50,000 or less | The Ministry decides the dispute itself with a final executive decision, rather than referring it to court — a change introduced from 1 January 2024 to speed up collection of entitlements. |
| Non-compliance with a settlement | Where a party fails to comply with an amicable settlement decision previously issued by the Ministry, the Ministry may decide the matter regardless of the claim value. |
| Claims above AED 50,000, unresolved | Referred to the competent court within 14 days of the petition, with a memorandum setting out the dispute, both parties’ arguments and the Ministry’s recommendation. |
Most unpaid-salary claims — one to three months of wages for a typical private-sector employee — fall under AED 50,000.
That matters because those claims can be resolved by a final executive decision from the Ministry instead of a court case. No court fees, no litigation timetable, no lawyer required to get a decision.
So work out your number before you decide the claim is not worth pursuing. Two months of an AED 9,000 salary plus accrued leave is well inside the threshold, and inside the route designed to deal with it quickly.
The Ministry’s recommendation is worth having
Where a matter does go to court, it does not arrive cold. It arrives with a memorandum from the Ministry containing an abstract of the dispute, both parties’ arguments, and the Ministry’s own recommendation.
This is a reason to engage properly at the amicable stage rather than treating it as a formality. What you put in front of the Ministry — a clean file, real dates, bank statements — shapes the document that goes to the judge.
Step six: your options for leaving while unpaid
At some point the question stops being “how do I get paid” and becomes “how do I get out”. There are proper routes for this and improvised ones. The proper ones protect your entitlements.
The temporary work permit
An employee may apply for a temporary work permit with a new employer while a case is being heard — with the express exception of a worker who fails to turn up for work.
The route that lets you earn while your claim proceeds is closed to a worker who stopped attending.
This is the concrete cost of walking out, and it is why “keep going to work” is the first instruction in this guide. Turning up while unpaid feels absurd. It is also what keeps your options open.
Terminating because the employer is in breach
Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 provides a specific route under Article 45: where the employer has failed in its obligations, a worker may terminate the contract without notice, having notified MoHRE 14 working days beforehand and the employer having not remedied the position — and retains their end-of-service entitlements.
Note what this is not. It is not simply resigning and calling it constructive dismissal. It has a notification step and a waiting period, and the sequence is what preserves your position. Our notice period guide sets out Articles 42 to 47 and the procedure each one requires.
Transferring to a new employer
Transfer between establishments was deliberately made easier under the current law, and a new work permit can be issued on transfer. Two conditions are worth knowing: the receiving establishment must hold a valid licence with no registered violations causing suspension of its operations, and your own status must be clean.
Our guide to work permit types covers the categories and the transfer permit in detail.
What you can claim — the full list
People routinely claim only the missing salary and leave the rest behind. If the employment is ending, the claim is broader.
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Unpaid salary | Every month outstanding, at the contractual wage |
| Unpaid overtime | Where worked and evidenced |
| Unpaid allowances | Housing, transport and others forming part of the agreed package |
| Accrued annual leave | Cash for the untaken balance — see our annual leave guide |
| End-of-service gratuity | Where you have completed one year — see our gratuity guide |
| Notice pay | Where applicable to how the contract ended |
| Repatriation ticket | Where provided for in the contract |
List every item with a figure and a basis when you file. A claim that says “two months’ salary” recovers two months’ salary. A claim that itemises all seven lines recovers what you are actually owed.
The situations that are not a simple non-payment
Most guidance assumes the salary simply did not arrive. In practice, the harder cases are the partial ones.
Partial payment
You are owed AED 10,000 and AED 4,000 arrives. This is the most common pattern in a business with a cash-flow problem, and it is designed — consciously or not — to keep you in place.
The position is straightforward: you are entitled to the agreed wage, in full, on the due date. A partial payment does not reset the clock and does not cure the default. What it does is complicate your evidence, because your bank statement now shows money arriving.
What to do: keep a running ledger — month, amount due, amount received, shortfall, cumulative shortfall. One table, updated each month. When you file, that table is your claim.
| Month | Due | Received | Shortfall | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 10,000 | 10,000 | 0 | 0 |
| February | 10,000 | 4,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| March | 10,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 11,000 |
| April | 10,000 | 0 | 10,000 | 21,000 |
Four months of partial payment produced a claim of AED 21,000 — comfortably inside the AED 50,000 threshold for a Ministry decision, and impossible to dispute because every line reconciles to a bank statement.
Cash outside WPS
Employers under pressure sometimes offer part of the salary in cash, off the WPS transfer. It solves your immediate problem and creates two new ones.
It weakens your evidence. WPS records are the Ministry’s own data. A cash payment leaves no trace in the system that regulates wages, so from the outside it looks as though you were paid nothing — or, from the employer’s side, that you were paid everything.
It normalises the arrangement. The month after, the same offer is easier to make.
If you take cash because you need to eat — a real situation and no one should pretend otherwise — then get a signed and dated receipt stating the amount, the month it relates to, and that it is a partial payment of wages. Photograph it. It converts an invisible payment into a documented one.
A salary reduction imposed without agreement
Distinguish two things. A reduction you agreed to in writing changes your contractual wage going forward. A reduction simply applied to your payslip does not — that is an underpayment of the agreed wage, and it accumulates exactly like the ledger above.
If a reduction is proposed, understand the second-order effect before you sign: gratuity is calculated on the basic salary at the end of service, so a reduction reaches backwards through every year you have accrued. A cut presented as temporary is not temporary in that respect.
Commission, incentives and bonuses
These are the hardest to recover, because the entitlement depends on what was agreed rather than on a fixed figure. The determining question is whether the payment is contractual — defined in your contract or in a scheme document with a formula — or discretionary.
Contractual commission with a stated calculation is claimable like any other wage. A discretionary bonus is a much weaker claim. Find the scheme document, save it, and be clear-eyed about which category you are in before you build a claim around it.
Your employer has stopped operating
Where a business has closed, gone quiet, or vacated its premises, your entitlements do not disappear — but recovering them becomes a claim against a company that may have limited assets and several claimants.
Speed matters more here than anywhere else in this guide. File immediately rather than waiting to see whether the business reopens. You should also expect the work permit and visa position to need attention in parallel, because an establishment that has stopped operating will not be processing cancellations — see our guides to visa cancellation and what happens when a visa expires.
You have already left the UAE
Leaving does not extinguish a claim, but it makes it harder to run: appointments, document submission and any court stage all assume presence or representation.
If you are still here and considering leaving, file before you go. If you have already left, contact MoHRE to establish what can be progressed remotely and what requires representation. Keep in mind that time limits apply to labour claims, so the answer to “should I look into this now or next year” is now.
Free zone employment
Most free zones apply the federal labour law and MoHRE’s routes, and everything above applies. A small number — principally the financial free zones — operate their own employment regulations and their own dispute forum, and a MoHRE complaint is not the correct filing.
Check which authority issued your visa and work permit before you file, because filing in the wrong forum costs weeks. Our guide to free zone versus mainland sets out the distinction.
Domestic workers
Domestic workers are covered by their own legislation rather than the private-sector employment law, though MoHRE remains the responsible ministry and operates dedicated channels for them.
The principles in this guide — document what you are owed, do not disappear, use the official channel — hold. The specific route does not, so contact MoHRE on 80084 to be directed to the correct process rather than following a private-sector procedure that will not apply.
Getting through it financially
The advice to keep attending work is correct and it is also easy to give. Here is the practical side.
| Pressure | What actually helps |
|---|---|
| Rent and cheques | Talk to the landlord or agent before a cheque bounces, not after. A dated email explaining the situation and proposing a revised date is a very different conversation from a returned cheque. |
| Loan and card repayments | Contact the bank before the missed payment. Banks have hardship processes; they are not offered to people who simply default. |
| School fees | Speak to the school administration early. Payment plans are common and are agreed far more readily in advance. |
| Utilities and telecoms | Smaller sums, but disconnection creates reconnection costs. Prioritise these if you must choose. |
| Working elsewhere | Do not take undeclared work. The temporary work permit exists for exactly this situation and it is the route that does not create a second problem. |
Going unpaid while continuing to work is genuinely difficult, and the strain of it is not a sign that you are handling it badly. Deal with the paperwork in the order set out here, use the free advisory line on 80084 rather than carrying the uncertainty alone, and talk to the people you owe money to before the dates rather than after. Those three things change the outcome more than anything else available to you.
What a strong file looks like
Two people can be owed the same money and get very different outcomes, because one arrives with a file and the other arrives with a grievance. This is the difference.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| “They haven’t paid me for months” | “Wages for February, March and April, due on the 1st of each following month, were not paid. Total AED 27,000.” |
| Verbal accounts of what was promised | Emails and messages with dates, including the employer’s own replies |
| A recollection of the salary figure | The signed contract, with the wage clause |
| “Sometimes they paid part of it” | A month-by-month ledger reconciled to bank statements |
| Only the unpaid salary claimed | Every entitlement itemised with a figure and a basis |
| Gaps in attendance, unexplained | A clear record of having worked throughout |
Nothing in the right-hand column requires money, a lawyer, or anything you do not already have. It requires assembling documents before you need them, which is why the evidence step comes before the filing step in this guide.
Three cases, and what decided them
Case A — the one that resolved without anyone leaving
Salary two months late at a small trading company. The employee kept attending, sent one polite email each month asking for a payment date, saved the replies, and filed a confidential salary complaint at day 20.
What decided it: the complaint was substantiated on the WPS record alone, and the matter went to inspection. The employer settled the arrears. The employee still works there.
The lesson: a great many non-payments are cash-flow failures rather than refusals, and an inspection resolves them without ending anyone’s employment. Escalating straight to a formal dispute would have made that outcome much less likely.
Case B — the one that went wrong
Three months unpaid. The employee stopped attending in frustration, went to work informally for a friend’s business, and filed a complaint six weeks later.
What decided it: the wage claim was real, but the employee was now defending their own absence at the same time — and the temporary work permit, which is expressly unavailable to a worker who fails to turn up, was closed to them. The undeclared work created a separate problem.
The lesson: the strength of the wage claim does not protect you from the consequences of how you leave. These are assessed separately.
Case C — the partial payer
Six months of receiving roughly half the salary, topped up occasionally in cash. No receipts.
What decided it: the shortfall was provable from bank records, but the cash payments were not, so the parties disagreed about how much had actually been received. The claim was recoverable and the argument was longer than it needed to be.
The lesson: take the receipt. A signed line on a piece of paper saying “AED 3,000 received, part payment of March wages” removes an entire dispute.
For employers: if you genuinely cannot make payroll
Not every unpaid salary is bad faith. Businesses run into receivable delays, a client fails, a facility is withdrawn. What follows is not a way to avoid the obligation — there isn’t one — but the difference between a bad month and a destroyed company is largely how it is handled.
| Do | Instead of |
|---|---|
| Tell your staff before the due date, with a specific revised date | Silence, which converts a delay into a suspicion of non-payment |
| Pay something to everyone, proportionately | Paying some people in full and others nothing, which guarantees complaints from the second group |
| Pay through WPS, even a partial amount | Cash, which leaves the file showing nothing was paid |
| Document what you paid and when | Reconstructing it later from memory |
| Prioritise the lowest-paid staff | Paying management first, which is what an inspection will notice |
| Engage with the Ministry when contacted | Ignoring notices, which escalates to service suspension and reclassification |
Notices arrive on days 3 and 10. Services are suspended on day 17. Beyond that: suspension of all work permits issued to the establishment, administrative fines, and reclassification to category three.
Category three affects the cost and difficulty of every subsequent government transaction — new permits, renewals, quota. A company that trades through a difficult quarter by not paying wages frequently finds that the classification consequences outlast the cash-flow problem by years.
The arithmetic almost never favours the delay. Where it is unavoidable, communication and partial payment through WPS are what keep it from becoming permanent.
The three records that decide employer cases too
Employers lose winnable positions for the same reason employees do — missing paperwork. Keep the signed contract with the wage clause, the WPS transfer records, and a dated record of any agreed variation. An establishment that can produce those three things is in a very different position at inspection from one that cannot.
If you have never been paid through WPS at all
A distinct situation, and more common than it should be: the salary arrives by cash, by personal transfer, or from an account with no connection to the company — and it has always been that way.
Employers registered with MoHRE must subscribe to the Wages Protection System and pay wages through it. Some categories sit outside the standard arrangement under specific rules, but an ordinary private-sector employer paying you outside WPS is a problem in its own right, independent of whether this month’s money arrived.
WPS is the record. If your wages have never passed through it, there is no official trace of what you were paid or when — so a future claim rests entirely on your own documents.
It also raises a prior question worth answering now rather than at a crisis: are you actually registered against this establishment? If you hold a valid MoHRE work permit, you are in the Ministry’s database and the routes in this guide are open to you. If your employment was never properly registered, that is itself a violation, and it needs raising before anything else — because an unregistered worker discovers the problem at exactly the moment they need the system to work.
Check your work permit status through the MoHRE app or website. It takes two minutes, and it is worth doing while nothing is wrong.
The whole sequence on one page
| When | Do this |
|---|---|
| Day 1–2 after the due date | Write down the due date and today’s date. Send a short, polite email asking when the transfer will be processed. Download your contract, payslips and bank statements to a personal email address. |
| Day 3–7 | Keep attending work. Start the ledger if the payment is partial. Note every response and every promise, with dates. |
| Day 8–14 | Call the advisory line on 80084 to confirm the right route for your situation. Check your phone number and email are current in MoHRE’s records so the OTP reaches you. |
| Day 15 onward | The employer is now in default. File the confidential salary complaint. Record the reference number. |
| After filing | Keep attending. Follow up through the MoHRE app, mohre.gov.ae or 046659999. Document any pressure or retaliation. |
| If it does not resolve | Escalate to a full labour complaint. Itemise every entitlement, not just the missing salary. Claims of AED 50,000 or less can be decided by the Ministry directly. |
| If you need to leave | Use the Article 45 route — notify MoHRE, allow 14 working days — and apply for a temporary work permit if a case is being heard. Never simply stop attending. |
The mistakes that cost people their claims
| Mistake | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Stopping attendance | Closes off the temporary work permit and exposes you to an absence report. The single most costly error. |
| Filing a full complaint first | Closes off the confidential salary complaint, which requires that you have no pending complaint or court dispute. |
| Waiting months to act | Evidence degrades, time limits run, and struggling companies rarely improve. |
| Taking cash without a receipt | Payments that leave no trace in WPS and cannot be reconciled either way. |
| Claiming only the salary | Leaves gratuity, accrued leave, allowances and notice pay on the table. |
| Signing a release to get part of it | May close off the balance of the claim. |
| Losing access to documents | Company email and HR portals are cut when a dispute becomes formal. Save everything first. |
| Assuming it is too small to pursue | Claims of AED 50,000 or less are exactly what the Ministry’s executive-decision route was built for. |
Frequently asked questions
How late does my salary have to be before it is illegal?
The employer is in default if the wage is not paid within the first 15 days after the due date, unless a shorter period is agreed in the employment contract. Before day 15 it is late; from day 15 it is a default under the law.
The Ministry, however, is already acting sooner — notices are issued to non-compliant establishments on the third and tenth days after the due date.
When is my salary actually due?
From the first day of the month following the expiry of the period for which the wage is specified in your contract. If the contract does not specify a period, you must be paid at least once a month.
Can I complain without my employer knowing it was me?
Yes. MoHRE’s My Salary Complaint service is a confidential complaint about an establishment’s failure to pay wages on time, without disclosing the complainant’s identity to the employer.
You must be registered in the Ministry’s database and must not already have a pending complaint or a court dispute. If substantiated, the matter is referred to the Labour Inspection Department for a visit to the establishment.
Can I stop going to work if I’m not being paid?
You should not. A worker who fails to turn up for work is expressly excluded from the temporary work permit that would otherwise allow work with a new employer while a case is heard — and an unexplained absence can be reported.
If the employer’s breach means you need to leave, use the Article 45 route: notify MoHRE, allow 14 working days, and your end-of-service entitlements are retained.
Can I work somewhere else while my case is being heard?
An employee may apply for a temporary work permit with a new employer while a case is being heard — except a worker who failed to turn up for work. This is the main practical reason to keep attending.
How long does a labour complaint take?
A complaint is to be resolved by the Ministry within 14 days of submission. Where amicable settlement fails and the claim exceeds AED 50,000, it is referred to the competent court within 14 days of the petition, with a memorandum including the Ministry’s recommendation.
Do I need a lawyer?
Not to file. The complaint routes are designed to be used directly, and claims of AED 50,000 or less can be decided by the Ministry with a final executive decision rather than going to court.
Legal representation becomes worth considering for larger claims heading to court, or where the facts are genuinely contested.
What if I’m only paid part of my salary?
You are entitled to the agreed wage in full on the due date. A partial payment does not cure the default. Keep a monthly ledger — due, received, shortfall, cumulative — reconciled to your bank statements. That ledger becomes your claim.
My employer offered cash instead of a WPS transfer. Should I take it?
Be careful. Cash leaves no trace in the system that regulates wages, which weakens your evidence in both directions. If you accept it out of necessity, insist on a signed, dated receipt stating the amount, the month, and that it is a partial payment of wages — and photograph it.
What can I claim besides the unpaid salary?
Unpaid overtime, unpaid allowances, accrued annual leave, end-of-service gratuity if you have completed a year, notice pay where applicable, and a repatriation ticket where contractual. Itemise all of it — a claim for “two months’ salary” recovers only two months’ salary.
What happens to an employer who doesn’t pay?
Notices on days 3 and 10, service suspension on day 17, and beyond that suspension of all work permits issued to the establishment, administrative fines under Cabinet Resolution No. 21 of 2020, and reclassification to category three — which makes every subsequent government transaction harder and more expensive.
I’ve already left the UAE. Can I still claim?
Leaving does not extinguish the claim, but it complicates running it, since appointments and any court stage assume presence or representation. Contact MoHRE to establish what can proceed remotely. Time limits apply to labour claims, so act promptly rather than waiting.
I work in a free zone. Does this apply to me?
Most free zones apply the federal labour law and MoHRE’s routes. A small number — principally the financial free zones — have their own employment regulations and dispute forum, where a MoHRE complaint is not the correct filing. Check which authority issued your permit before you file.
Which number should I call?
80084 — MoHRE’s toll-free Labour Claims and Advisory Call Centre, for guidance on which route applies to you.
046659999 — to follow up an application submitted through the salary complaint service.
600590000 — MoHRE’s general call centre.
Services are also available through the MoHRE smart app and mohre.gov.ae.
Can my employer punish me for complaining?
The salary complaint route is designed to be confidential precisely to reduce this risk. If you are pressured or your position deteriorates after filing, document it with dates and raise it with MoHRE — retaliation against a worker for pursuing a lawful entitlement is a matter for the Ministry.
Related guides
- WPS explained — the system, the deadlines and how establishment blocks work
- Filing a MoHRE labour complaint — the full complaint process end to end
- Notice periods and Articles 42–47 — the routes for ending a contract properly
- End-of-service gratuity — calculating what you are owed at exit
- Absence reports — what happens if you stop attending
- ILOE claims — income support after job loss
Sources
- Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations, and its amendments
- Ministerial Resolution No. 598 of 2022 regarding the Wages Protection System, and its amendment
- Ministerial Resolution No. 782 of 2023 regulating the process for resolving individual labour complaints
- Cabinet Resolution No. 21 of 2020 — administrative fines
- MoHRE — My Salary Complaint service; Register Labour Complaints service; Dear Worker – Know Your Rights
- The Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae) — payment of wages; individual labour disputes
This guide is general information based on published UAE government sources, current at the date shown above. It is not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts and documents, and free zones with their own employment regulations follow different routes. For guidance on your own situation, contact MoHRE’s Labour Claims and Advisory Call Centre on 80084, or take qualified legal advice. We update our guides when the underlying provisions change.
