The MOHRE contract in the UAE: what to match before you start work
The WhatsApp offer is not the contract. The contract the ministry sees is the one that fixes the basic wage — which is the gratuity figure — the job title, the notice period and the work pattern.
In the UAE there are usually two papers. The first is an offer or a message with an attractive number. The second is an employment contract registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and tied to the work permit. In a dispute the ministry is asked about the second. The permit path itself, from offer to licence, is in the work-permit and contract guide. Here is what you read on the registered contract before day one.
Where you see it
Through the ministry’s own channels: its app or its website, and with the digital identity if one is asked for. A Telegram account called “contract enquiry” that wants photos or a fee is not the ministry. If you cannot get in yet, ask the employer to show you the registered copy, then match it. Do not sign in the app without reading the clauses because a clerk is “in a hurry for the fingerprint”.
What has to match
- The basic wage on its own, then each allowance as its own amount. The gratuity in Article 51 uses the basic. An offer of “7,000 all-in” and a contract whose basic is 2,500 means the gratuity will be counted on 2,500.
- The title and the workplace. Being assigned work that differs in substance, without your consent, has a rule in the decree. The city written down is the city you will be asked about later.
- The work pattern. Full-time is the Article 51 path. Another pattern is calculated differently. Do not assume you are “full-time” because you work every day.
- Notice. Article 43: not less than 30 days and not more than 90. A longer or shorter period than the text allows is read against the article, not against the clause.
- Probation. Article 9: not more than six months, and it is not repeated with the same employer if you completed it successfully. The detail is in the probation guide.
If the offer and the contract differ, it is better for you that the registered one is corrected before you start, rather than collecting screenshots of a message the ministry will not be asked to enforce. Reject it, or ask for the correction through the official channel. Accepting, then travelling, then complaining is possible. It is longer.
Keep a copy off the work phone: the contract, the permit, the first payslip. Those three are the file if you later need a complaint. A free zone may register its contract with its own authority rather than the federal ministry. Ask exactly where your contract was registered, and read that copy.
An offer, a contract, and a permit: three different things
A job offer may be signed before you enter. The employment contract is the one whose terms are registered with the competent authority. The work permit is permission for the establishment to employ you. The three can carry different figures if nobody matches them. Start from the registered contract. If the permit names one profession and the contract another, do not start until they match. Working on a permit that does not match what you do repeats the profession problem people know from Saudi Arabia, even though the system here has a different name.
The wage on a UAE contract is in dirhams. A number in riyals or pounds on the offer, then “we will convert it” on payday, is a number you do not hold. Ask for the basic wage in dirhams on the contract. Financial free zones, such as the Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market, have their own framework and their own courts. If your contract is there, the federal ministry may not be where you complain. Ask: where is this contract registered, and where do I complain if we disagree? Keep the answer in writing.
Sources
Rules and fees change and differ by country and employer. Always check with the official authorities before paying or signing anything.