— HR & Payroll · 2026
Leave management in an HRMS: a UAE practitioner guide for 2026
Disclaimer: this article summarises UAE leave entitlements under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and how they are configured in ERPNext HR / Frappe HRMS. Labour-law positions evolve via Cabinet Decisions and ministerial guidance. Confirm current entitlements and any sector-specific rules with MoHRE and your legal adviser before relying on this for compliance.
TL;DR
- UAE full-time employees who complete one year of service get 30 calendar days of paid annual leave; sick leave is up to 90 days banded 15 paid / 30 half / 45 unpaid; maternity leave is 60 days banded 45 paid / 15 half.
- Public holidays during leave are not deducted from balances.
- Frappe HRMS / ERPNext HR supports these patterns natively through Leave Type configuration — no custom development needed for the core rules.
- Bayzat and ZenHR are strong SaaS alternatives that ship UAE rules pre-configured; ERPNext / Frappe HRMS wins when you also need finance, projects and operations in one stack.
- End-of-service gratuity accrual is affected by leave type — paid leave generally counts, unpaid generally does not.
Why leave management is more than a calendar
For finance and HR teams in the UAE, leave management touches three regulated areas at once: payroll (paid days vs unpaid days, half-pay bands), labour-law compliance (statutory entitlements, public holidays, maternity rules) and end-of-service liability (which leave types accrue gratuity service). Get any of these wrong at scale and you have either a compliance issue or a cash issue at gratuity payout. An HRMS that handles leave properly is not just a self-service convenience — it is the source of truth that payroll and gratuity calculations depend on.
UAE leave entitlements at a glance
| Leave type | Entitlement | Pay treatment | Eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual leave | 30 calendar days / year | Fully paid | After 1 year of continuous service |
| Annual leave (partial) | 2 days / month | Fully paid | 6–12 months of service |
| Sick leave | Up to 90 days / year | 15 full + 30 half + 45 unpaid | After probation; medical certificate |
| Maternity leave | 60 days | 45 full + 15 half | Female employees |
| Parental leave | 5 working days | Fully paid | Within 6 months of child’s birth |
| Bereavement leave | 3 or 5 days | Fully paid | Death of spouse / immediate family |
| Public holidays | Per official UAE calendar | Fully paid | All employees |
| Hajj leave | Up to 30 days | Unpaid | Once during service; Muslim employees |
This is a working summary, not legal text. The current law and Cabinet Decisions govern; MoHRE publishes guidance. Confirm specifics for your sector and contract type before encoding them into HRMS rules.
How ERPNext HR / Frappe HRMS handles it
Frappe HRMS (and ERPNext HR before it was modularised) configures leave through three primary DocTypes: Leave Type, Leave Policy and Holiday List. The mechanics:
- Leave Type. Defines the leave (e.g. "Annual Leave", "Sick Leave", "Maternity Leave"), maximum entitlement, whether it’s paid or partially paid, accrual frequency, carry-forward and encashment rules, and whether it consumes from the gratuity service period.
- Leave Policy. Bundles Leave Types with their annual entitlements per employee grade or category — useful for differentiating senior staff allowances or expat vs local benefits.
- Holiday List. Per-year list of UAE public holidays; can be branched per location for multi-emirate companies.
The 90-day banded sick leave (15 full / 30 half / 45 unpaid) is handled by linking three Leave Types with sequential consumption rules, or by a custom payment-component logic on a single Leave Type. Both patterns are supported without custom development. Maternity 60-day banded leave follows the same approach.
Approval workflows route through standard Frappe Workflow — usually employee → reporting manager → HR — and integrate with the employee mobile app for self-service.
Leave and end-of-service gratuity
UAE gratuity is calculated on basic salary and continuous service: 21 days for each of the first five years and 30 days for each subsequent year (with caps and conditions). Paid leave generally counts as continuous service. Unpaid leave generally does not. Long unpaid sabbaticals or unpaid sick leave bands (the last 45 days of UAE sick leave) reduce the service period that gratuity is calculated on.
In ERPNext, the gratuity calculation script can be configured to either include or exclude specific Leave Types. Set this up at implementation, not at first gratuity payout — retrofitting accurate service periods on a leave history of hundreds of approved applications is painful.
Frappe HRMS vs Bayzat, ZenHR, BambooHR
Honest take, based on what we see at clients across the GCC:
- Frappe HRMS / ERPNext. Best when HR is part of a wider ERP — finance, projects, payroll, operations all in the same database. Configurable for UAE rules. Self-host or Frappe Cloud. No per-user license in community edition.
- Bayzat. UAE-built, ships with UAE labour-law leave rules pre-configured, modern UI, payroll and benefits integrated. Excellent if HR is your primary need and you want SaaS simplicity. Per-user-per-month subscription.
- ZenHR. Strong GCC HR SaaS with leave management, payroll and onboarding for the region. Comparable to Bayzat in fit; choose on UI preference and reference customers.
- BambooHR. Strong global HRIS but not UAE-tailored — you’ll configure the leave types, holiday list and gratuity rules yourself. Good if you have a global HR team that already standardises on Bamboo.
Most UAE SMEs that come to us either want a single integrated stack (ERPNext) or have already chosen a dedicated HR SaaS (Bayzat / ZenHR) and want it integrated with their finance ERP. Both are valid patterns.
How we help
We configure ERPNext HR / Frappe HRMS for UAE employers — leave types mapped to the labour law, holiday lists, gratuity rules, payroll integration with WPS, and employee self-service. See our ERPNext vs Odoo comparison for the platform decision; come to us when you’re ready to implement.
FAQ
What is the UAE annual leave entitlement?
Under the UAE Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and amendments), full-time private-sector employees who have completed one year of continuous service are entitled to 30 calendar days of paid annual leave per year. Employees with more than six months but less than one year accrue at two days per month. Public holidays falling within annual leave do not count as part of the 30 days. Verify the current legal position against MoHRE guidance for your specific case.
How is sick leave handled in the UAE?
After three months of probation completion and once the employee has been employed continuously, they are entitled to up to 90 days of sick leave per year, structured as: the first 15 days fully paid, the next 30 days at half pay, and the remaining 45 days unpaid. A medical certificate from a recognised health authority is required. ERPNext / Frappe HRMS supports this band structure via leave-type configuration.
What is the maternity leave entitlement?
Female employees are entitled to 60 days of maternity leave: the first 45 days fully paid and the next 15 days at half pay. Additional unpaid leave may be available for medical reasons supported by a certificate. Frappe HRMS handles this with a dedicated maternity leave type with a defined paid/half-paid/unpaid pattern.
Do public holidays count against leave?
No. Official UAE public holidays fall outside annual and sick leave allocations. If a public holiday falls during annual leave, it is not deducted from the 30-day balance. ERPNext’s Holiday List feature, applied to the leave application workflow, prevents these from being deducted incorrectly.
How does leave affect end-of-service gratuity?
End-of-service benefits (gratuity) accrue based on continuous service and basic salary. Periods of paid leave generally count as service for gratuity calculation; periods of unpaid leave are typically excluded. The exact treatment depends on the type of leave and current law — confirm with your HR/legal adviser. ERPNext’s gratuity calculation can be configured to include or exclude specific leave types from service accrual.
Can ERPNext / Frappe HRMS handle UAE leave rules out of the box?
Mostly yes, with configuration. The leave-type framework supports paid bands (e.g. 15 full + 30 half + 45 unpaid for sick leave), maximum entitlement, accrual frequency, encashment rules, carry-forward limits, and probation treatment. The UAE-specific patterns (30-day annual leave, 90-day banded sick leave, 60-day banded maternity) are configurable without custom development. Public holidays are managed through the Holiday List.
How does it compare to Bayzat or ZenHR?
Bayzat and ZenHR are UAE / GCC-focused HR SaaS products with leave management as a core feature, designed specifically for the region — they ship with the labour-law patterns pre-configured. They are excellent if HR is your primary need and you want SaaS simplicity. Frappe HRMS is broader and integrated into a full ERP — better if you also need finance, payroll, projects and operations in one stack. BambooHR is a strong global HRIS but is not UAE-tailored; you will configure UAE rules yourself.
Can employees apply for leave from a mobile app?
Yes. Frappe HRMS has a mobile app (and a responsive web UI) where employees apply for leave, view balances and approval status. Managers approve from the same app. ERPNext (without HRMS as a separate app) supports the same workflow through the responsive web UI.
1,700 words · 9 min read
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