Two labour court rulings published this spring will quietly reshape how end-of-service is argued — both turned on what counts as basic salary. If your offer letters bundle allowances loosely, read the first section twice.
Regulation, decoded — the rulings
In both cases, employees argued their "basic" salary had been artificially suppressed by shifting pay into allowances, shrinking their gratuity. In both, the court looked past the contract label to the payslip history — and recalculated gratuity on the higher figure. The lesson for employers is not a trick to avoid; it is that payslip structure is evidence. Keep basic salary honest and the math defends itself.
Also this month: Emirates ID renewal fees were restructured — marginally cheaper for 10-year cards, slightly costlier for 2-year renewals tied to visa duration.
The deadline radar — next 90 days
- Jul 1Emiratisation step-up checkpoint for 50+ skilled-worker companies
- Jul 15WPS window for June payroll closes
- Aug 1Summer leave peak — settlements for leavers spike; verify gratuity inputs
Deep dive — gratuity, end to end
Twenty-one days of basic pay per year for the first five years, thirty after, capped at two years’ total salary, computed on the final basic, extended by unpaid leave days. Simple — until a mid-month exit meets a salary change and three spreadsheets disagree.
We published the full walkthrough with every edge case — resignation vs termination, probation, partial years, the 2022 reform changes — as a companion article on the journal. The one-line takeaway: compute settlements from payroll history, not from the contract PDF.
Product notes
Shipped in May: exit settlements now cite the legal basis per line item, and the org chart exports to PDF in both languages.