Your employer won't pay your gratuity. Here's the actual process.

First: confirm the money is actually owed

Three conditions decide it, and none of them involve your employer's opinion:

• One year of continuous service. Below twelve months, no gratuity is due — including someone who leaves during probation.
• The reason you left rarely matters. Since Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 replaced the old law, resignation and termination produce the same gratuity. The deductions that used to punish resignation (one-third, two-thirds) no longer exist. See resignation vs termination.
• The amount is fixed by formula, not by goodwill: 21 days of basic salary for each of the first five years, 30 days for each year after, capped at two years' pay. Run your own number in the gratuity calculator before you talk to anyone.

Only gross misconduct removes the entitlement, and only under the narrow grounds listed in Article 44 of the law. "He resigned without notice" or "she went to a competitor" is not one of them — those are separate claims your employer would have to bring, not a licence to withhold gratuity.

The 14-day clock, and the deadline that matters more

Your employer must settle gratuity and all final dues within 14 days of the employment end date. Miss that and you are not out of time — but you are on a second, longer clock: under Article 54(9) of the Labour Law, a claim is not considered once two years have passed since the employment relationship ended. That window used to be one year; Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2024 doubled it with effect from 30 August 2024, and much of the advice still circulating online has not caught up. Note what the clock runs from — the end of the relationship, not the date each individual entitlement fell due.

In practice: wait out the 14 days, send one written request, and if nothing lands, file. There is no advantage in waiting longer, and no fee for filing.

Step by step

• 1. Put the demand in writing — once. Email or WhatsApp to HR: your last working day, the gratuity figure you calculate, the basic salary it is based on, and a seven-day deadline. This costs you nothing, resolves a meaningful share of cases, and becomes your evidence if it doesn't.
• 2. Gather four documents. Your employment contract (it states the basic salary the whole calculation rests on), Emirates ID, passport copy, and proof of your employment dates and last salary — pay slips or bank statements showing the salary credits.
• 3. File the complaint with MOHRE. Free, through the MOHRE app, the ministry's website, a Tas-heel service centre, or the call centre on 600 590 000. You do not need a lawyer, and you do not need your employer's cooperation to open the file.
• 4. Mediation. A MOHRE officer contacts both sides and attempts settlement — typically within a few weeks. Most gratuity disputes end here, because the sum is arithmetic and the employer has no defence to it.
• 5a. Claims up to AED 50,000: MOHRE decides. The ministry can issue a binding decision on labour claims of AED 50,000 or less, without the courts. This is the change that made the process usable for ordinary employees.
• 5b. Above AED 50,000, or if a party objects: the labour court. MOHRE issues a referral, and you must register the case with the court within 14 days of that referral. This deadline catches people out — the referral is not the end of the process, it is the start of a short one. Workers' claims are exempt from court fees at first instance for amounts up to AED 100,000.

Three mistakes that weaken a strong case

• Signing a final settlement or clearance form before you've checked the number. A signed full-and-final receipt is exactly what it says. Calculate first, sign second.
• Claiming gratuity on your total salary. The law says basic salary. Arriving with an inflated figure hands your employer the argument and costs you credibility on the parts you're right about. See basic vs total salary.
• Leaving the country with nothing filed. A complaint can proceed while you are abroad, but opening it is far easier from inside the UAE — and if you overstay while arguing, you accrue AED 50 a day in fines that no gratuity award will reimburse.

What about unpaid salary, notice pay and leave?

File them together. One complaint covers the whole final settlement: outstanding salary, pay in lieu of untaken annual leave, notice period compensation, and gratuity. Splitting them into separate complaints only slows you down.