Probation: the asymmetry nobody reads until they need it

The frame

• Six months maximum, counted from the day you actually start work. Shorter is allowed; longer is not, and no extension past six months is valid however it is worded.
• Once per employer. The same employer cannot put you on probation a second time — which matters when a contract is renewed or you move to a different role in the same company.
• Employment, not a trial run. Working hours, weekly rest, overtime rules and the general protections of the Labour Law apply from day one. What is discretionary during probation is paid sick leave: unless the employer agrees otherwise, sick leave in this window is reported as unpaid.

The three exits, and their price

Read the middle row again: one month, not fourteen days. The shortest notice in the table belongs to the employer and to the person leaving the country. The person doing the most ordinary thing — switching to a better UAE job during probation — owes the longest notice of the three.

Leaving the country: the one-year problem

If a foreign worker departs the UAE during probation without giving the required 14 days' notice, the consequence is not merely contractual. MOHRE may decline to issue a new work permit for one year from the departure date, and the employer may claim the wage for the unserved notice. It is the single most common way a short, unhappy first job turns into a year-long problem.

There is also a return rule with a different purpose. If you leave the country during probation and come back within three months on a new work permit, the recruitment costs paid by your original employer fall on your new employer, unless they agree otherwise. That is a cost allocation between two companies — but it is why a new employer may hesitate over a candidate who left the country weeks ago, and it is worth knowing which of the two problems you are actually facing.

Recruitment costs are never yours

Whatever moves between the two employers, one rule does not move: the employer bears recruitment and employment costs and cannot recover them from the worker, directly or indirectly. A probation contract clause making you repay visa, medical or agency fees on early departure runs against that rule. The same principle blocks charging you for the work permit or Emirates ID — see what may lawfully leave your payslip.

Gratuity and the six-month illusion

Probation time counts toward continuous service — it is not a gap in your tenure. But end-of-service gratuity only becomes payable after one full year of continuous service, so a contract ending inside the probation window ordinarily produces no gratuity at all. The two facts are frequently confused into a wrong conclusion in both directions: probation does not reset your clock, and surviving probation does not by itself earn you anything. Run your actual figure through the gratuity calculator once you cross a year.

If you are on probation right now

1. Find your start date, not your contract date. The six months run from when you actually began work, and that is the date every deadline below is measured from.
2. Check the probation clause against the table above. A clause requiring three months' notice from you during probation, or extending probation to nine months, is not enforceable simply because you signed it.
3. Give notice in writing. Email with a date. A verbal resignation during probation is the version of events you will not be able to prove later.
4. If you are joining another UAE employer, plan a month. Tell the incoming employer that the notice is one month, not two weeks — start-date promises made on the wrong number cause most of the damage here.
5. Never leave the country quietly. Fourteen days of written notice is the difference between a clean exit and a year without a work permit.
6. Then watch the visa clock. Cancellation starts its own countdown, separate from anything in your employment contract — grace period after cancellation.