Leave Approval Letter

Approve an employee’s leave in full or in part on your letterhead, with the approved dates, the return date and the pay the Labour Law sets, as PDF or DOCX.

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Letter details

Employee nameApplication date

Optional · DD/MM/YYYYLeaveFirst day requested

Day first — DD/MM/YYYYLast day requested

Day first — DD/MM/YYYY · inclusive

Return to work

Day first — DD/MM/YYYY · after the last day of leave

Entitlement check

For your information only — nothing in this box is printed in the letter.

Article 29(1): 30 days a year after one year of service, 2 days a month after six months. Counted in calendar days; public holidays within the leave count as part of it (Article 29(7)).

Joining date

Optional · DD/MM/YYYY · for the balanceAnnual leave already taken (days)Optional · in this employment

Company

Company nameAddress

Company logo

Company logoPNG or JPG · 2MB max · min 50×50 · auto-scaled to 60×25mm

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Signatory

Signer nameTitle

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Legal basis

Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations — Arts. 1, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34
Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 (Implementing Regulation of the Labour Law) — Art. 19

Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

* A letter template you review, complete and sign — not legal advice. The employer who issues it is responsible for its content. Annual leave is paid at the full wage — the basic wage plus the cash allowances (Articles 1 and 29(6)); only leave paid out in cash at the end is calculated on the basic wage (Article 29(9)). The employer may set the dates of annual leave according to work requirements and in agreement with the worker, telling the worker at least a month ahead (Article 29(4)); maternity, sick, bereavement and parental leave are entitlements, so the page offers a partial approval only for annual, study and unpaid leave. A worker who does not return after leave without a legitimate reason is not paid for the absence (Article 34). The employment contract, the law that actually applies (the DIFC and ADGM free zones have their own employment laws) and any decision of MOHRE or a court prevail over this template — check it with MOHRE or a qualified adviser before you issue it.

LOGO

Your company name

[Company address]

To[Employee Name]Date25 September 2026

Approval of Leave

Dear [Employee Name],

We refer to your application for annual leave from [First Day Requested] to [Last Day Requested] inclusive.

We are pleased to approve your annual leave of [Days], from [First Day Approved] to [Last Day Approved] inclusive.

You will receive your full wage for the period of this leave, as Article 29(1) and (6) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 provide: the wage as its Article 1 defines it, that is, your basic wage together with the cash allowances and benefits in kind allocated to you under your employment contract.

You are expected to resume work on [Return Date].

Under Article 34 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, a worker who does not return to work directly after the end of the leave without a legitimate reason is not entitled to the wage for the period of absence that follows.

Yours sincerely,

On Behalf of [Company]

[Signer]
[Title]

SEAL

This tool writes the employer’s reply to a leave application, on your letterhead: it refers to the request, approves the leave in full or in part, states the approved dates, the days in the law’s unit and the return date, and restates how the leave is paid under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021.

How annual leave is paid

Article 29(1) grants annual leave “with full wage”, and Article 29(6) entitles the worker to “the wage for the period of his annual leave”. Article 1 defines the wage as the basic wage plus the cash allowances and benefits allocated under the contract. The basic wage is the measure only for leave not taken when the employment ends (Article 29(9); Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 19(2)).

For the other leaves the letter restates the article: sick leave pay bands (Article 31), maternity leave with full then half wage (Article 30(1)), paid parental, bereavement and national service leave (Article 32), and unpaid leave that is not counted in the service term (Article 33(2)).

Approving in part

Article 29(4) lets the employer specify the dates of annual leave according to work requirements and in agreement with the worker, with at least a month’s notice of the dates it sets. A partial approval states the approved dates and your reason, word for word, and invites the employee to agree the dates. It is offered for annual, study and unpaid leave only; sick, maternity, parental, bereavement and national service leave are entitlements, approved in full.

Every approval states the return date and Article 34: a worker who does not return directly after the leave without a legitimate reason is not entitled to the wage for the absence that follows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is annual leave paid on the basic salary or the full salary in the UAE?

On the full wage — basic plus allowances — for leave you take (Articles 1, 29(1) and 29(6) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021). The basic wage applies to unused leave paid out when the employment ends (Article 29(9)).

Can an employer change the dates of annual leave?

The employer may specify the dates according to work requirements, in agreement with the worker, and must notify the worker of the dates at least a month ahead (Article 29(4)).

Is the information I enter stored?

No. Generating sends your entries to our document service, which returns the finished file and stores none of it. The full field-level data flow is published in the Privacy Notice.