Maternity Leave for Husband in UAE: What Dads Actually Get

If you're a new dad working in the UAE and someone told you about "maternity leave for husband in UAE," let me straighten that out first. There's no such thing as maternity leave for a husband — what you actually get is paternity leave, and yes, it's a real statutory entitlement under federal law. Five working days, paid, usable within six months of the birth.

Quick answer

When people ask about maternity leave for husband in UAE, they usually mean parental leave for the father. Under Article 32 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 (the UAE Labour Law), a working father in the private sector gets 5 working days of fully paid parental leave, taken at any point within 6 months of the child's birth. It applies to both parents, can be taken continuously or in batches, and requires a birth certificate. Public sector and free zones (DIFC, ADGM) have their own rules — often more generous.

Why "maternity leave for husband in UAE" is the wrong question

Honestly, most clients searching for maternity leave for husband in UAE walk in expecting the same 60 days a mother gets. That's not the deal. Maternity leave is for the person who gave birth. Fathers get parental leave — a separate, shorter entitlement that the UAE introduced in 2020 and then re-confirmed in the 2021 labour law overhaul.

The UAE was the first Arab country to give private-sector fathers paid parental leave. That matters historically. But the practical entitlement is modest.

Five days. Paid at full wage. Use it within six months.

What the law actually says

The governing provision is Article 32 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations, and Article 15 of the Executive Regulations (Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022). [1][2]

The core rules:

• 5 working days of paid parental leave for the employee (mother or father).
• Available from the date of the child's birth until 6 months after.
• Can be taken continuously or intermittently — your choice, subject to reasonable notice to your employer.
• Full wage during the leave (basic + allowances, same as any annual leave calculation under Article 29).
• You'll need to produce the birth certificate when requested.

The law doesn't carve out a different rule for fathers versus mothers on this particular leave — it's parental leave for whoever is the employee parent. The mother also separately gets 60 days of maternity leave (45 paid in full, 15 at half pay) under Article 30. So in practice, the father uses these 5 days as his slice.

Watch out: Parental leave does not carry over. If you don't use it within 6 months of the birth, it's gone. No payout, no rollover into annual leave.

Public sector, DIFC and ADGM: different (better) rules

If you work in the federal government or for an Abu Dhabi government entity, your entitlement is more generous. Federal government employees get 3 days specifically labelled paternity leave under the HR Law for federal employees (Federal Decree-Law No. 49 of 2022 and earlier Cabinet decisions), and some emirate-level rules go further. Check your HR manual — I've seen Abu Dhabi entities give 5 working days plus the option to attach annual leave.

DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre, the financial free zone with its own employment law) is the standout. Under the DIFC Employment Law (DIFC Law No. 2 of 2019) as amended, fathers get 5 working days of paid paternity leave within 2 months of the birth. [3] ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market) Employment Regulations 2019 give the same 5 working days. [4]

So if you're DIFC or ADGM based, the number is the same as the mainland but the rules around when you take it and notice periods differ. Read your contract.

How to actually take the leave — the practical bit

Here's where most fathers get tripped up in real life. Not by the law — by their own HR portal.

Step 1 — Notify your employer in writing before the expected birth. Email is fine. Mention the expected due date and that you intend to use your statutory 5 working days under Article 32.

Step 2 — Submit the birth certificate. The UAE-issued birth certificate from the hospital or the relevant health authority (DHA in Dubai, DOH in Abu Dhabi) is what your employer wants. If your child is born abroad, you'll need an attested birth certificate — and you'll likely have residency formalities to sort separately.

Step 3 — Apply through the HR system. Most companies use a category called "parental leave" or "paternity leave" in their leave portal. If it's not there, request it manually and reference Article 32.

Step 4 — Decide your split. Some dads take all 5 days right after birth. Others save 2 or 3 for the first paediatric appointments or when the in-laws leave. Either is fine under the law.

If your employer refuses, that's a Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) complaint. File it through the MOHRE app or call 600 590 000. They take parental leave denials seriously — it's a clear-cut statutory right.

What about unpaid extension or annual leave on top?

The law gives you 5 days. It doesn't stop you from negotiating more.

In my experience, most decent private-sector employers will let you attach annual leave to the parental leave without much fuss. So a father with 30 days of accrued annual leave can realistically take 3-4 weeks off around the birth — 5 days paid parental + the rest from annual leave. That's the workaround everyone uses.

Some companies (mostly multinationals, tech firms, some banks) have their own enhanced paternity policy — 2 weeks, 4 weeks, occasionally more. That's contractual, not statutory. Check your employee handbook before you assume.

Unpaid leave beyond that is at the employer's discretion under Article 33. They don't have to grant it.

Costs to know (2024): Parental leave itself costs you nothing — it's fully paid. But if you need to add your newborn to your health insurance, mandatory in Dubai under the Dubai Health Insurance Law No. 11 of 2013, employers must add the child within 30 days of birth. Late additions can trigger fines on the employer, and gaps in coverage on you.

What dads commonly get wrong

A few patterns I see repeatedly:

Assuming it's 5 calendar days. It's 5 working days. If your weekend is Saturday-Sunday and you start leave on a Thursday, you've used Thursday and Friday — Monday is day three. Don't let HR shortchange you.

Waiting too long. The 6-month window is firm. I had a client last year who travelled extensively for work, kept postponing, and lost the entitlement. No appeal, no extension.

Confusing it with the mother's leave. If your wife is also employed in the UAE, she gets her 60 days of maternity leave and her own 5 days of parental leave. You get your 5 days separately. They don't share a pool.

Forgetting probation. Parental leave under Article 32 doesn't carve out probationers. If you're within your 6-month probation period and you become a father, you still get the 5 days. Frankly, some employers try to push back on this — they're wrong.

For more on related rights, see our guides under employment law and our labour law answers section.

When to actually call a lawyer

Most fathers don't need legal help to take 5 days off. But there are scenarios where you should:

• Your employer refuses, retaliates, or terminates you around the time you request the leave (Article 47 protections against arbitrary dismissal apply).
• You're on an unusual contract type — secondment, contractor, part-time under the new flexible work models — and it's unclear which entitlements apply.
• You're in a free zone with bespoke rules (some smaller free zones default to mainland law, others don't).
• Your child is born abroad and you need to coordinate leave with residency and attestation timelines.

The 5 days look simple. The fight over those 5 days when an employer is being difficult — that's where it gets technical.

---

Sources

[1] Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations, Article 32 — Parental Leave. UAE Ministry of Justice.

[2] Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 on the Executive Regulations of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, Article 15.

[3] DIFC Employment Law (DIFC Law No. 2 of 2019), Articles 36–37 — Paternity Leave. DIFC Legislative Database.

[4] ADGM Employment Regulations 2019, Section 36 — Paternity Leave. ADGM Legal Framework.

[5] MOHRE — Parental Leave Information Page, mohre.gov.ae.

Need this checked for your situation? Talk to a UAE-licensed lawyer →