Part-time work earns gratuity. Temporary work does not.
Article 30 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 does two separate things, and they pull in opposite directions. It pro-rates gratuity for two named models, and it removes it entirely from a third. Which model your contract names decides which of those applies to you.
For a worker under a part-time or job-sharing model, the entitlement is a percentage: the working hours in the employment contract per year, divided by the working hours in a full-time contract per year, multiplied by 100. That percentage is applied to the gratuity a full-time employee would have earned for the same service.
“The end of service pay shall not be applicable in the event of operating under a temporary employment model or if its duration is less than a year.” This is not a pro-rating down to a small number. It is no statutory gratuity at all, however long the engagement ran.
The arithmetic, in order
Nothing about the underlying calculation changes. The pro-rating is the last step, not a different formula:
- Work out the full-time entitlement under Article 51 — 21 days of basic wage per year for the first five years, 30 thereafter.
- Work out your hours percentage: contracted annual hours ÷ full-time annual hours × 100.
- Apply the percentage.
- Apply the two-year ceiling if it bites, which at part-time hours it almost never will.
A worked example
Three years of service, basic wage 8,000 AED, contracted 24 hours a week where the employer's full-time week is 48 hours:
- Daily basic = 8,000 ÷ 30 = 266.67 AED
- Full-time entitlement = 3 × 21 = 63 days × 266.67 = 16,800 AED
- Hours percentage = 24 ÷ 48 × 100 = 50%
- Payable = 16,800 × 50% = 8,400 AED
The statute expresses the ratio in hours per year. The calculator on this site asks for weekly hours, because that is what contracts state and what people know. The two give the same answer whenever you and a full-time colleague work the same number of weeks in the year, which is the ordinary case. They diverge if your contract runs for part of the year only — a nine-month academic contract against a twelve-month full-time one, say. In that situation work the ratio out in annual hours yourself and treat our figure as approximate. We would rather tell you this than quietly round it.
The one-year threshold still applies
Part-time service of less than a year earns no statutory gratuity, exactly as full-time service does not. The threshold is measured in elapsed service, not in hours worked: eighteen months at two days a week clears it, and eleven months at five days a week does not.
Which model earns what
Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 recognises several working models beyond full-time. Article 30 does not treat them alike, and the difference is worth more than any other line on this page:
| Model | What it is | End-of-service pay |
|---|---|---|
| Part-time | Fixed, reduced hours for one employer, or for more than one with the required permissions | Pro-rated by hours, Article 30(1) |
| Job-sharing | One role split between employees, each on their own portion | Pro-rated by hours, Article 30(1) |
| Flexible | Hours or days that vary with the employer's workflow | Not named in Article 30 — see below |
| Temporary | Work for a defined project or period, under the temporary model | None. Article 30(2) |
The flexible model is not in Article 30
Article 30(1) names the part-time and job-sharing models. It does not name the flexible model, and it does not say flexible work is to be treated as part-time. On the ordinary reading, a flexible worker's entitlement is the full Article 51 calculation, unpro-rated — varying your hours across the year is not the same as contracting for fewer of them.
Where a contract is flexible and part-time, the part-time characterisation is what matters and the pro-rating applies. If your hours genuinely vary, keep your own record of them: the ratio is an arithmetic fact, and whoever has the hours written down is the one able to demonstrate it.
“Temporary” is a model, not a synonym for short
This is where the exclusion is most likely to be applied wrongly, in both directions. A fixed-term contract under the ordinary full-time model is not the temporary model, and gratuity is payable on it in the normal way — an employer treating any fixed end date as bringing Article 30(2) into play is reaching. Equally, an employee on a genuine temporary model does not acquire gratuity by working a long time. Read the model named in the contract itself, and if it is not named, ask for it in writing.
Two failures are common. The first is an employer treating part-time service as earning nothing at all — it earns a proportion, and the proportion is written into the regulations. The second is a dispute over what the employer's full-time week actually is, because the denominator decides the answer: 24 hours against a 40-hour week is 60%, and against a 48-hour week it is 50%. That number should be in your contract or the employer's policy. Ask for it in writing before you agree a figure.
Questions
Does overtime count towards the hours ratio?
The regulation refers to the working hours set out in the employment contract, not the hours actually worked in a given week. Regular overtime does not enlarge the contracted figure, though it may be relevant to other entitlements. If your contracted hours and your real pattern have diverged permanently, that is worth putting right in the contract rather than arguing at the end.
I work part-time for two employers. Do both owe gratuity?
Each employment relationship stands on its own. Each employer owes gratuity on the service and hours with them, subject to the same one-year threshold. Working for more than one employer requires the appropriate permit arrangements, which is a separate matter from the entitlement.
I moved from full-time to part-time with the same employer.
Service is continuous, so the clock does not restart, but the hours ratio differs across the two periods and a single percentage applied to the whole span will not be right. In practice the fair approach is to work each period on its own hours and add them. This is exactly the kind of case where the arithmetic is simple but the facts need agreeing in writing first — and where our calculator, which takes one hours ratio, will not model your situation properly.
I was on a temporary contract for three years. Really nothing?
No statutory gratuity, if the contract genuinely operated under the temporary model — Article 30(2) draws no distinction by length. Two things are still worth doing. Check what model the contract actually names, because “temporary” in ordinary speech and the temporary employment model in the regulations are not the same thing, and a fixed-term full-time contract does earn gratuity. And separate gratuity from everything else: outstanding wages, unused annual leave and notice pay are not affected by Article 30(2) and are still owed within the fourteen days.
Does the two-year ceiling apply to part-time service?
Yes, Article 51(6) applies, but the cap is two years of your wage and the pro-rating happens before it. At reduced hours you would need an implausibly long service period to reach it.
Related
- How gratuity is calculatedThe Article 51 formula the percentage is applied to
- The service periodWhat counts towards the one-year threshold
- Run your own figureChoose your employment model and enter both sets of hours
Reviewed 2026-09-27 against Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and Article 30 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. General guidance, not legal advice — see the disclaimer.