How to File a Labour Complaint With MOHRE

MOHRE has authority over employment governed by the federal labour law — Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, as amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2024 — which covers mainland companies and the great majority of the UAE’s free zones. It has no role whatsoever in DIFC or ADGM employment.

If your employer is a DIFC-registered or ADGM-registered entity, a MOHRE complaint against them will not be accepted, and time spent filing one is time not spent on the process that actually applies. DIFC employment disputes go to the DIFC Courts (including, for smaller claims, the DIFC Small Claims Tribunal); ADGM employment disputes go to the ADGM Courts. This is the single most commonly mis-routed procedure in UAE employment, so it’s worth confirming the registered jurisdiction of your employing entity from your contract before doing anything else.

If you’re not sure which regime covers you, the deciding factor is the employing entity itself — what kind of entity it is and where it is registered — not your nationality, visa type, or which emirate you physically work in.

The same check matters for government work. The federal labour law applies to employers and workers in the private sector, and Article 3 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 expressly excludes employees of federal and local government entities, so a government role falls under a different process from the one this guide describes.

• MOHRE ↗

A MOHRE complaint typically covers unpaid or delayed wages, unpaid notice pay, disputes over end-of-service gratuity, disputed or wrongful termination, breach of contract terms, Wage Protection System (WPS) non-compliance flags, and other disputes arising directly out of a federal-regime employment relationship.

It can be brought by either party — most commonly the employee, but employers can also raise complaints against employees, for example over unauthorised absence or breach of contractual obligations.

A complaint is registered with MOHRE online, through the MOHRE website or the MOHRE smart app. Exactly which channels are available and how the intake process works can change, so it’s worth confirming the current registration route directly on MOHRE’s own site before starting.

MOHRE’s own ‘Register Labour Complaints’ service for the private sector lists its website and the MOHRE smart app as its online channels, and the complaint can be tracked through either. Registering a complaint costs nothing: MOHRE lists no service fee. For help with a labour grievance, workers can also call MOHRE’s toll-free Labour Claims and Advisory Call Centre on 80084.

At registration, you’ll typically need to identify yourself, identify the employer, and describe the nature of the dispute — for example, unpaid wages for a specific period, or the circumstances of a termination. Having your employment contract, labour card or work permit details, and any relevant correspondence ready at this stage makes the intake faster.

MOHRE’s form asks for the employee’s passport number, name, date of birth and nationality, every applicant must give an Emirates ID card number, and an employer filing a complaint enters its establishment or licence number. MOHRE also asks for any documents that support the claim, such as a resignation or dismissal letter.

• MOHRE eServices — official portal ↗

Once registered, MOHRE typically brings both sides together for a conciliation stage — an attempt to resolve the dispute directly, without it needing to escalate further. Many complaints are resolved or narrowed at this point.

MOHRE’s service description sets out how this works: the MOHRE employee handling the complaint contacts both the complainant and the other party, after consulting MOHRE’s legal adviser, to try to settle the dispute amicably. If that doesn’t work, a meeting is scheduled and the parties are notified by text message, and both sides are contacted a second time before the complaint goes any further.

The stage also runs to a set period. Under the Executive Regulation (Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022), where an amicable settlement isn’t possible, MOHRE refers the dispute to the competent court within 14 days from the date the complaint was submitted, for disputes outside MOHRE’s own decision power in Step 3. Real-world timelines still vary with the complexity of the case and how responsive each side is.

If conciliation resolves the matter, MOHRE will typically record the settlement. If it doesn’t, the complaint moves forward either to MOHRE’s own decision-making authority or toward referral to the Labour Court, depending on the value and nature of the claim.

Under Article 54 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, as amended (most recently by Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2024), MOHRE has a significant power: for claims valued up to AED 50,000, MOHRE can issue a decision that is itself binding and directly executable, without the claim needing to go through the court system at all.

This matters practically because it can materially shorten the path from complaint to a decision you can actually enforce, for claims that fall within that threshold. It does not remove the option of court entirely — a party may still have routes to challenge a MOHRE decision — but it changes the default path for smaller claims considerably.

Where a claim exceeds MOHRE’s binding-decision threshold, or otherwise falls outside MOHRE’s own decision power, and conciliation doesn’t settle it, the matter is referred onward into the onshore court system, generally to the relevant Labour Court division within the emirate’s court structure.

From that point the claim proceeds as onshore civil litigation — Arabic-language, civil-law procedure, with a court-appointed expert commonly used to assess a wage or entitlement calculation. This is a different process, with a different pace, to MOHRE’s own conciliation and decision stage.

A referral doesn’t in itself mean court fees for the worker: Article 55 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 exempts workers and their heirs from judicial fees at every stage of litigation and execution for labour claims of up to AED 100,000.

A labour claim under the federal regime is subject to a two-year limitation period running from the date of termination. This is one of the more consequential deadlines in the whole process — missing it generally closes off the ability to bring the claim at all, regardless of how strong it would otherwise have been.

Because the clock runs from termination rather than from when a dispute first arose, it’s worth treating this as a hard deadline to check early, not something to leave until a dispute has already been running for some time.

A binding MOHRE decision or a Labour Court judgment doesn’t enforce itself. If the other side doesn’t comply voluntarily, enforcement runs through a separate execution process and, where the claim went through the court system, a separate execution file — see LEXNOVA’s guide on enforcing a domestic judgment for how that stage works, including the coercive tools available such as bank attachment and salary garnishment.

Unpaid wages flagged through WPS: a pattern of WPS non-payment flags can itself support a complaint and may also trigger separate regulatory consequences for the employer, independent of the employee’s own complaint.

End-of-service and gratuity disputes: these are commonly bundled into the same complaint as a wage claim, since gratuity calculations often depend on facts — length of service, reason for termination — that are also relevant to the wider dispute.

Disputed terminations: where the reason for termination is itself contested (for example, whether it was for cause), that dispute is typically resolved as part of the same complaint rather than as a separate process.

Gather your employment contract, labour card or work permit details, salary records or bank statements showing (or failing to show) payment, any termination letter or correspondence, and a clear written timeline of what happened and when. The clearer the documentary record, the faster conciliation and any subsequent decision-making stage tends to move.

To repeat the point made at the top of this guide because it’s the one that causes the most wasted time: MOHRE has no jurisdiction over DIFC or ADGM employment. If your employer is registered in either free zone, your route is the DIFC Courts (with the DIFC Small Claims Tribunal available for smaller claims) or the ADGM Courts respectively — not MOHRE, and not the onshore Labour Court.

Filing against the wrong forum entirely — a DIFC or ADGM employer through MOHRE, which MOHRE cannot act on.

Waiting past the two-year limitation period from termination before filing, which can close off the claim regardless of merit.

Filing without the underlying documentation — contract, payment records, correspondence — which slows conciliation and any decision that follows.

Assuming a MOHRE decision enforces itself, and not planning for a separate execution step if the employer doesn’t comply voluntarily.

You can register the MOHRE complaint yourself: MOHRE’s complaint service is open to employees and employers directly, through its website and app. MOHRE also has to come first. Under Article 54 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, the Court of First Instance won’t accept a lawsuit on these disputes that hasn’t followed the MOHRE procedure and deadlines set out in that article.

A lawyer becomes particularly useful if the other side disputes the claim, if the case is referred to the Labour Court, if the amount involved is significant, or if the dispute goes beyond straightforward unpaid wages, for example a contested dismissal or a non-compete question. A court referral isn’t a setback in itself — it means the dispute moves from MOHRE’s administrative process to a judicial one — but it is the stage where a lawyer becomes considerably more valuable.

LEXNOVA is a lawyer-matching service, not a law firm — it doesn’t file your complaint, represent you at MOHRE, or give legal advice on your claim. What it does is help you describe your situation clearly enough — which regime applies, what the dispute actually is, and where it currently stands in the process — to be matched with a lawyer whose practice fits. Every match is reviewed by a person before it reaches you, and the professional relationship from there is directly between you and the lawyer.