Concerning
Marriage Leave for Employees of the
Government of Dubai[1]
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
We, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler
of Dubai,
After perusal of:
Federal Law No. (6) of 2014 Concerning National and Reserve
Service and its amendments;
Law No. (6) of 2012 Concerning Management of the Human
Resources of Local Paramilitary Personnel in the Emirate of Dubai and its
amendments;
Law No. (13) of 2016 Concerning the Judicial Authorities in
the Emirate of Dubai and its amendments;
Law No. (8) of 2018 Concerning Management of the Government
of Dubai Human Resources and its amendments;
Law No. (5) of 2021 Concerning the Dubai International
Financial Centre;
Law No. (26) of 2023 Concerning the Executive Council of the
Emirate of Dubai;
Law No. (2) of 2025 Concerning the Dubai International
Financial Centre Courts;
Decree No. (22) of 2009 Concerning Special Development Zones
in the Emirate of Dubai;
Decree No. (26) of 2013 Concerning the Rental Dispute
Settlement Centre in the Emirate of Dubai;
The human resources legislation applicable in the entities affiliated
with the Government of Dubai; and
The legislation establishing and regulating free zones in
the Emirate of Dubai,
Do
hereby issue this Decree.
The following words and expressions, wherever mentioned in this Decree,
will have the meaning indicated opposite each of them unless the context
implies otherwise:
|
UAE: |
The United Arab Emirates. |
|
Emirate: |
The Emirate of Dubai. |
|
Executive Council: |
The Executive Council of the Emirate of Dubai. |
|
Government Entity: |
Any of the Government departments, public agencies or
corporations, Government councils, public authorities, or other public
entities affiliated to the Government of Dubai. |
|
Employee: |
A person who falls within any of the categories
specified in Article (2) of this Decree. |
|
UAE National: |
Any person holding the UAE nationality. |
|
Marriage Leave: |
The leave to which an Employee is entitled pursuant
to this Decree. |
This Decree applies to the following categories:
1.
UAE
National
Employees employed by Government Entities, irrespective of the type of their
employment. This category includes directors general, executive directors/
chief executive officers, and other persons holding similar positions. It also
includes UAE National Employees employed by the authorities supervising Special
Development Zones and free zones, such as the Dubai International Financial
Centre;
2.
UAE
National
Members of the Judicial Authorities serving in the Dubai Courts, the Public
Prosecution, the Judicial Inspection Department, the DIFC Courts, the Rental
Disputes Settlement Centre, or any other judicial body in the Emirate;
3.
UAE
National
Staff Members serving in any of the paramilitary entities in the Emirate,
excluding Cadets; and
4.
any
other
category of individuals as determined by a resolution issued by the Chairman of
the Executive Council in this respect.
a.
An
Employee is entitled to Marriage Leave of ten (10) working days with Aggregate
Salary, in accordance with the rules prescribed by this Decree.
b.
An
Employee may combine Marriage Leave with any other
type of leave to which he is entitled under the human resources legislation
applicable in his entity.
To be eligible for Marriage Leave, an Employee must meet the
following requirements:
1.
The Employee’s spouse must be a UAE
National.
2.
The Employee must have
successfully completed the probation period prescribed under the human
resources legislation applicable in his entity or as otherwise determined by
that entity in this respect.
3.
The Employee’s marriage contract
must be attested by the competent entities in the UAE and must have been
concluded after 31 December 2024.
4.
A copy of the marriage contract must be
submitted once with the Marriage Leave application.
5.
The Employee must meet any other requirements as determined
pursuant to the relevant resolution of the Chairman of the Executive Council.
a.
During
Marriage Leave, an Employee will be entitled to receive his Total Salary,
including all allowances and financial benefits prescribed under the human
resources legislation applicable in his entity.
b.
An
Employee
may utilise Marriage Leave, either consecutively or intermittently, at any time
within one (1) Year from the date of concluding the marriage contract. A
Government Entity may approve the deferral of the Marriage Leave, or any part
thereof, to the following Year only, subject to the Employee providing valid
reasons and obtaining his immediate supervisor’s approval.
c.
Where
the compassionate leave overlaps with Marriage Leave, the overlapping days of
the compassionate leave will be added to the Marriage Leave entitlement.
a.
A
Government
Entity may not recall an Employee from Marriage Leave, except in case of a
Staff Member as mandated by work requirements. In this case, the remaining
period of the Marriage Leave will be carried forward and resumed upon the end
of the recall period.
b.
Where
an Employee is recalled during Marriage Leave to perform National Service or
Reserve Service, or is unable to utilise the Marriage
Leave due to this recall, the Marriage Leave, or any remaining balance thereof,
will be deferred until after the Employee has completed the service. The
Marriage Leave, or any remaining balance thereof, must be utilised within one
(1) Year from the date of the Employee’s return to work.
An Employee who is transferred or
appointed to another Government Entity will retain his entitlement to Marriage Leave, or any balance
thereof, not utilised during the Employee’s period of service with the previous
Government Entity.
The period prescribed for utilising
Marriage Leave, in accordance with paragraph (b) of Article (5) of this Decree, will be calculated from
the date of publication of this Decree in the Official Gazette, in respect of
marriage contracts concluded after 31 December 2024 and prior to the date of
publication.
The Chairman of the Executive Council will issue the
resolutions required for the implementation of the provisions of this Decree.
Any provision in any other legislation is hereby repealed to the
extent that it contradicts the provisions of this Decree.
This Decree comes into force on 1 January 2025, and will be published
in the Official Gazette.
Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum
Ruler of Dubai
Issued in
Dubai on 8 July 2025
Corresponding
to 13 Muharram 1447 A.H.
©2025 The Supreme Legislation Committee in the
Emirate of Dubai
[1]Every effort has been made to produce an
accurate and complete English version of this legislation. However, for the
purpose of its interpretation and application, reference must be made to the
original Arabic text. In case of conflict, the Arabic text will prevail.