Falling sick during your notice period: does it push back your last day in the UAE?

A resignation or termination letter fixes a leaving date under UAE law, and falling sick during the notice period does not, on its own, move that date. It does, however, trigger separate pay obligations that employers routinely get wrong.

The question clients actually ask

An employee resigns, serves notice, then produces a medical certificate for the final two weeks. Or an employer terminates, hands over a notice letter, and the employee is signed off sick the next day. Both sides ask the same thing: does the sick leave extend the notice period, so the contract only ends once the employee returns to work, or does the original end date stand regardless?

Under the UAE Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021) and its Executive Regulations (Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022), the answer is that the notice period is a fixed contractual term, not a rolling clock that pauses for illness. The last day of employment stated in the notice remains the last day, unless both parties agree in writing to vary it.

Why sick leave and notice period are treated separately

The law addresses these as two distinct entitlements. Notice periods (typically 30 to 90 days depending on the employment contract) exist to give both sides time to transition: the employer to find a replacement, the employee to seek new work. Sick leave exists to protect income during genuine incapacity, calculated as up to 90 days per year once probation is complete, split into full pay for the first tranche, half pay for the following tranche, and unpaid thereafter.

These entitlements run in parallel, not in sequence. An employee who falls sick on day five of a 30-day notice period does not get the notice period suspended and restarted on recovery. The 30 days keep running. What changes is only the pay treatment for the days actually covered by a valid medical certificate.

What the employer must actually pay

During notice, an employee who is not sick is entitled to full salary and benefits as if actively working, whether or not the employer has placed them on garden leave. If the employee produces a medical certificate during that same window, the days covered convert to sick pay under the ordinary tiered structure rather than ordinary notice pay, but the employee is not worse off: they are still paid, just under a different label, and the notice period itself does not lengthen to compensate for the days lost to illness.

The medical certificate changes how the days are paid. It does not change when the contract ends.

Can the employer terminate during the sick leave itself?

This is where the two protections can collide. The Labour Law restricts an employer's ability to dismiss an employee who is on sick leave before their sick leave entitlement for the year is exhausted, subject to conditions on notifying the employer and substantiating the illness. That protection is aimed at employers using illness as a pretext to dismiss without notice or end-of-service liability. It does not operate to extend a notice period that has already been validly triggered before the sickness arose. If notice was served first and the employee then falls ill during that notice window, the termination is already in motion for reasons unrelated to the illness, so the protection against dismissal during sick leave has limited bite: the contract still ends on the notice expiry date.

Practical points for both sides

• Employees: a medical certificate from a UAE-licensed practitioner is essential to secure sick pay treatment for the days concerned; without it, unexplained absence during notice can be treated as unauthorised and may expose the employee to disciplinary consequences or a note on the final settlement.
• Employers: do not assume you can simply refuse to pay for sick days falling within notice, and do not assume the departure date has moved. Calculate the final settlement (gratuity, unused annual leave, any pay in lieu) against the original notice expiry date, adjusting only the day-rate treatment for certified sick days.
• Both sides: if a genuine extension is wanted, for example to allow a longer handover once an employee recovers, put it in writing as a mutual variation of the notice period. Silence defaults to the original date standing.
• MOHRE route: disputes over whether sick pay was correctly applied during notice, or over the final settlement date, are dealt with through MOHRE's complaint mechanism before proceeding to court, in the same way as other wage and termination disputes.

Key instruments: Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 (UAE Labour Law); Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 (Executive Regulations); MOHRE complaint procedures. General information, not legal advice.