A MOHRE Labour Complaint Against Your Company (2026): The Free Channel, the Clocks and What It Costs You

When a worker files against your company, the first channel is MOHRE, and it is free for both sides. Onshore, a private-sector worker or employer files a request with the ministry, which examines it and takes what it deems necessary to settle the matter amicably before any court is involved.¹ Opening that route costs nothing, and labour claims that do not exceed AED 100,000 are exempt from judicial fees at every stage of litigation and enforcement.¹

Read that from the employer's side and it says something specific: a worker who disagrees with your figure can test it at almost no cost, on a clock that starts without you. The advice that matters is the advice that comes before that, when the contract template, the salary split and the termination file are still yours to shape.

Which rules apply depends on two things: the law that covers the entity, and how far the matter has already travelled. One. The onshore private sector runs on Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021.¹ Two. Several categories of worker sit outside it and use a different channel.¹ Three. ADGM is a separate regime with its own timetable.²³

Which employment law actually covers your entity?

Before you look for advice, confirm whose rulebook you are in. It decides which door the matter goes through, and it is set by where the company is registered, not by where the office is.

Private-sector employment onshore, Dubai mainland included, is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relationships.¹ It came into force on 2 February 2022 and abrogated Federal Law No. 8 of 1980, the law most older contracts and most older internet advice were written against.¹ If your reference point predates 2022, it is out of date.

The same law names who it does not cover. Employees of federal and local government entities, employees of the armed forces, police and security, and domestic workers are all outside it.¹ That exclusion is not a technicality. A workforce that mixes those categories is running more than one rulebook.

Two of those rows carry different numbers for the same event. Onshore, an employer must pay wages and all other entitlements within 14 days of the contract ending.¹ In ADGM, wages and other amounts owing are due within 21 calendar days of termination.³ A group that runs both entities on one payroll calendar is late on one of them.

What the free channel covers, and what it does not

Four mechanisms cost nothing to use. They are not interchangeable, and three of the four are available to the worker rather than to you.

The MOHRE route, onshore. Either party submits a request to the ministry, which examines it and works to settle the matter amicably between them.¹ If a friendly settlement is not possible within the period set by the Implementing Regulation, the ministry refers the matter to the competent court, and that referral carries a memorandum summarising the case, the arguments of both parties and the ministry's own recommendation.¹ The procedures for individual complaints are set by Ministerial Resolution No. 782 of 2023, in force since 1 January 2024, which keeps the target at 14 days from submission; it repealed Article 2 of the earlier Ministerial Resolution No. 47 of 2022.⁵ That memorandum is worth noting: what you say at the amicable stage travels to the court with the file.

The fee exemption. Labour claims that do not exceed AED 100,000 are exempt from judicial fees at all stages of litigation and enforcement, and that exemption covers requests filed by workers or their heirs.¹ It removes the fee barrier rather than funding representation, which means the cost of contesting a settlement below that figure is close to nothing for the other side.

Wage continuation while the matter runs. MOHRE has the right, during proceedings, to oblige an employer to keep paying a worker's wages for a maximum of two months, where the matter has caused payment to stop.¹ Employers also have to hold worker-protection insurance covering unpaid entitlements up to AED 20,000 per worker.⁶ A contested exit can therefore keep costing payroll while it runs.

The ADGM Courts Pro Bono Scheme. ADGM Courts allow individuals with limited financial means to receive legal assistance at no cost, subject to proof of those means, across matters within the ADGM Courts' jurisdiction, employment included.² Consultations are carried out by telephone or video conference.²

What none of these mechanisms does is write your contract, structure a termination or build the file you will be asked for. That work sits outside the free channel by design.

What happens when a complaint is filed against you?

The onshore sequence is fixed, and each step has its own clock. None of them waits for an internal decision.

1. 1

   File within 30 days

   A worker or an employer has 30 days to file a labour complaint where the other side fails to meet an obligation in the contract or under the labour law.

2. 2

   MOHRE attempts settlement

   The ministry takes all necessary action to settle an individual complaint within 14 days of submission, working towards an amicable outcome.

3. 3

   Referral to the competent court

   If no settlement is reached, the matter is referred to the court with a memorandum setting out a summary of the case, the arguments of both parties and the recommendation of the ministry.

4. 4

   Register within 14 days

   The worker registers the complaint with the competent court within a maximum of 14 days from the approval of the referral.

5. 5

   Hearing set within 3 working days

   The court sets a hearing within three working days of receiving the request, notifies both parties, and decides as soon as possible.

Collective matters follow their own track. Where a group of no fewer than 100 workers is in contention with an employer, a collective complaint is registered through the channels MOHRE specifies, the competent department works to settle it amicably within 30 days of registration, and execution of that settlement should not exceed 90 days from the settlement record.⁵

When is paid advice worth the money?

The free channel handles the ordinary case well. It stops being enough at the point where the outcome turns on how the file was built, and that point is usually months before the complaint.

Four situations move a matter into the paid column.

• A contract template before it is issued. The terms you write set the rules for every hire that follows, and the cheapest moment to fix a clause is before it is in fifty signed contracts.
• A contested file. Once the facts themselves are in question, the outcome depends on documents and dates, not on which side feels more wronged.
• A termination that has to hold. Dismissing a worker because they filed a serious complaint with the ministry or a lawsuit is unlawful where proven, and compensation is capped at three months' wage.¹ The documentation is what decides that question, and it has to exist before the decision.
• Two regimes in one group. An employee who moved between an onshore entity and an ADGM one carries two sets of deadlines into the same file.¹³

This is where coordination matters more than a directory. LawyersDubai coordinates access to licensed UAE employment and labour law specialists, and to broader legal advisory where the matter reaches past employment. The article on when your company actually needs an employment lawyer in Dubai covers the choice in more depth.

What is actually at stake in the free route?

The channel is free. What it recovers is not symbolic, and it is worth pricing before a matter gets there.

Final entitlements are due within 14 days of the contract ending, and that includes wages and everything else the law, the contract or the establishment's by-laws provide.¹ End-of-service gratuity accrues at 21 days' wage for each of the first five years of service and 30 days' wage for each year after that, with the total for a foreign worker capped at two years' wage.¹

Where a termination was unlawful, compensation is assessed by the court and cannot exceed the worker's wage for three months, calculated on the last wage received.¹ That is a ceiling on the compensation head alone. Everything else already owed stays payable alongside it.

The mistakes that turn a grievance into a court file

None of these is exotic. Each is avoidable with a calendar, and each costs more than the planning would have.

• Waiting out the 30-day window. The right to file a labour complaint runs 30 days from the failure to meet the obligation.⁵ Letting a grievance sit in the hope it expires is not a strategy, because the clock also runs on obligations you have not yet met.
• Treating the referral as the end of it. Once the referral to the judiciary is approved, the worker has 14 days to register the complaint with the competent court.⁵ A file that reaches that stage arrives with MOHRE's own recommendation attached.¹
• Assuming the fee exemption always applies. It is written to claims that do not exceed AED 100,000.¹ Above that figure it does not apply by its own terms, which changes the arithmetic on both sides.
• Running the wrong regime. ADGM has its own employment rules, down to a 21-day deadline for final payments and a one-year continuous service requirement for gratuity.³ Onshore assumptions do not transfer.
• Reacting to the complaint itself. Terminating the person who filed it is the one response the law names as unlawful.¹

Where LawyersDubai fits

The free channel is real, and it settles most ordinary matters. It is also unforgiving about timing, and it assumes you already know which regime your entity is in.

LawyersDubai is a law consultancy firm. It is a single, confidential point of contact that coordinates access to licensed UAE professionals across the mainland and the free zones, from reviewing a contract template before it is issued to preparing the file that goes to employment and workplace specialists. It does not give legal advice and it is not a law firm. It connects you to the professional who does.

The companies that spend the least on employment matters are the ones that fixed the contract and the process before anyone had a grievance. The earlier a specialist sees the file, the more of it is still yours to shape.