Leave & Benefits

Leave entitlements in the Gulf look simple until someone resigns mid-year with unused days and a housing allowance. Then the question becomes what leave salary actually includes, and the answer differs by country.

These guides cover annual leave, public holidays, sick leave and its paid and unpaid stages, maternity and paternity provisions, hajj leave, compassionate leave and study leave where it exists. Each is set out country by country, because the entitlement, the accrual method and the payment basis are all local.

Leave salary is where most disputes start. In some jurisdictions it is calculated on basic pay only, in others on the full package including allowances. Encashment of untaken days may be mandatory, optional or capped. Carry-over rules limit how much can be banked. We show the calculation with real figures rather than describing the principle.

Beyond statutory minimums, these articles cover the benefits that decide whether you can actually recruit: medical insurance and who must be covered, housing and transport allowances, annual flights home, schooling support, life cover and end-of-service provisions. Some are legal requirements, some are market expectations, and confusing the two is expensive in both directions.

There is guidance on writing a policy that survives contact with a labour authority: what has to sit in the contract, what can live in a handbook, how to record approvals, and how leave interacts with notice periods and final settlements.

If you employ people across several Gulf states, this section is about keeping one policy fair without breaking six sets of rules.