August 2026 ยท Labor & Employment ยท 10 min read ยท Ahmad Abdulla Ahli Advocates & Legal Consultants
Yes. An official public holiday does not necessarily mean that every private-sector business must close, and depending on the nature of the employer's operations, employees may be required to work. However, requiring an employee to work does not remove the employee's statutory public-holiday entitlement. Under Article 28, private-sector workers are entitled to paid leave on public holidays determined by the UAE Cabinet, and if work circumstances require an employee to work, additional compensation rules apply. The UAE Government's official portal confirms that public holidays apply to both the public and private sectors.
Under Article 28, if you are required to work on an official public holiday, your employer should compensate you through one of two alternatives:
If you work on a UAE public holiday, your employer should not simply treat it as an ordinary working day without further compensation.
Generally, no. Article 28 establishes alternatives โ the substitute rest day or monetary compensation. It would be inaccurate to state as a general rule that every employee working on a public holiday must receive both a compensatory day off and an additional 50% payment, though an employment contract, collective arrangement or company policy may of course give an employee more favourable benefits, since Article 28 sets only the statutory minimum.
Article 28 provides the two methods of compensation but does not expressly state that the employee has an absolute unilateral right to choose which method applies. The employment contract, applicable company policy and arrangements between the employer and employee should be reviewed. What is important is that the statutory entitlement should not simply disappear.
Article 28 itself does not prescribe a specific expiry period for taking the substitute rest day โ it does not say the day must be taken within 30 days, three months, six months, or the same calendar year. This differs from some other categories of leave for which UAE employment legislation contains more detailed rules. An employer may have internal procedures for requesting and scheduling compensatory days, and larger employers are required to maintain work regulations dealing with working hours, weekly rest days and official holidays โ but those internal regulations must not contradict the UAE Labour Law.
Employees should distinguish between scheduling a compensatory day (an administrative matter) and eliminating the statutory entitlement without providing either the substitute rest day or the applicable statutory payment (a legal matter). Where an employer relies on an internal "expiry" rule to provide neither alternative after requiring the employee to work the public holiday, the employee may have grounds to challenge that position.
Do not assume this automatically ends the matter. The first question should be: how did the employer compensate you for working that public holiday? If you were already provided with the statutory monetary compensation instead of a substitute rest day, there may no longer be a compensatory-day entitlement for that holiday. However, if you worked on an official public holiday, were not given a substitute rest day, and were not compensated through the alternative payment, the employer's position should be examined carefully โ Article 28 does not state that the entitlement automatically disappears merely because an internal period for taking compensatory leave has passed.
MoHRE's current worker guidance advises that a complaint may be submitted within 30 days of an employer's breach of its legal obligations, and separate amendments announced in 2024 provide for a two-year limitation relating to court claims calculated from termination of the employment relationship โ employees should obtain advice promptly rather than assume an unresolved entitlement can be pursued indefinitely.
Not necessarily. This entitlement primarily concerns private-sector employees governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, including employees of mainland private companies. Government employees and domestic workers are governed separately, and financial free zones such as the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) operate under independent employment regulatory frameworks. Employees in those jurisdictions should check the legislation applicable to their particular employment relationship.
Employees should avoid confusing a compensatory day for working on a public holiday with ordinary annual leave, which is governed by separate provisions of the UAE Labour Law and its Executive Regulations. A substitute rest day arising because you worked on an official public holiday originates from the public-holiday protection under Article 28 โ the legal basis for the two entitlements is not the same, which matters particularly when an employer argues a compensatory day has "expired" by applying rules designed for annual leave.
Working on a public holiday in the UAE does not mean losing the benefit of that holiday. If work circumstances require you to work on an official public holiday, you should receive either a substitute rest day for every public-holiday day worked, or the applicable wage together with an additional payment of at least 50% of your basic wage for that day. Remember two common misconceptions: the law does not generally require both the substitute day and the statutory monetary supplement, and Article 28 itself does not prescribe a specific expiry period for taking the substitute rest day. Our Labor & Employment team advises employees and employers on public-holiday entitlements and MoHRE labour complaints โ read more about our Labor & Employment Law practice.