Labor Law Amendments: What Changed for You, as Employee or Employer?

You handed in your resignation three weeks ago and nobody has replied. Are you still employed, or has your contract ended?

Or you are an employer who wants to extend a new hire’s probation, or end an open-ended contract, and you are not sure how much notice is required today.

The answers changed on 19 February 2025 (20 Sha’ban 1446 AH), when the amendments to the Labor Law came into force together with the Implementing Regulation of the Labor Law.

The amendments changed 38 articles, repealed 7 and added 2. Here I focus on what touches the day-to-day relationship between worker and employer.

Before and after

This table sums up what changed on the questions people ask every day, and what stayed the same.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column

In 2026 a new table of Labor Law violations and penalties was issued. It concerns the penalties the Ministry imposes and does not change the articles in this table.

When is a resignation accepted, and when does the contract end?

The law defines resignation as the worker’s written statement, made freely, of his wish to end a fixed-term contract, without attaching any condition, together with the employer’s acceptance.

A verbal resignation falls outside this definition, because it requires writing.

Article 79 bis then sets out the process step by step:

• If 30 days pass from submission with no reply from the employer, the resignation is deemed accepted.
• The employer may defer acceptance for up to 60 days where the needs of the work require it, by a reasoned written explanation given to the worker before the 30 days end. The deferral runs from the date the explanation is delivered.
• The worker may withdraw the resignation within 7 days of submitting it, unless the employer has accepted it first.
• A resignation may not carry a deferred date.
• The contract stays in force while the request is pending, and both parties remain bound by everything that flows from it.

The contract ends on the employer’s acceptance, on the 30th day without a reply, or at the end of the deferral.

The statutory definition speaks of a fixed-term contract. If yours is open-ended, whether these rules apply to it, and how your award is calculated if you end it yourself, are two questions that turn on your own facts and documents.

Notice, compensation and the end-of-service award

In an open-ended contract with monthly pay, either party may end it for a legitimate reason by written notice:

• from the worker, at least 30 days before the termination date;
• from the employer, at least 60 days before;
• and where pay is not monthly, 30 days from either side.

So on monthly pay, the notice is no longer the same for both sides.

A party that does not observe the notice period pays the other an amount equal to the worker’s wage for that period. That is Article 76, which was not amended.

Article 77 also stands as it was.

If the contract is ended for an unlawful reason and the contract sets no compensation, the injured party receives 15 days’ wage for each year of service in an open-ended contract, or the wage for the remaining term in a fixed-term contract, and in either case no less than two months’ wage.

If someone tells you the minimum is now three months, the text in force says two.

The award when you resign

Article 79 bis says a worker whose contract ends by resignation is entitled to all his rights under the law. That does not always mean the full award, because the fractions in Article 85 still apply:

• under two years: no award;
• two to five years: one third;
• more than five and less than ten years: two thirds;
• ten years or more: the full award.

The award itself is half a month’s wage for each of the first five years and a full month’s wage for each year after that, calculated on the last wage.

Probation may not exceed 180 days

If a worker is on probation, the contract must say so expressly and state its length clearly, and the total may not exceed 180 days in any case.

The Implementing Regulation allows it to be split into several periods, provided they are consecutive and this is stated clearly when the contract is concluded.

The Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays, the National Day holiday, the Founding Day holiday and sick leave do not count towards probation.

Either party may end the contract during probation, and the old possibility of giving that right to one party only has been removed.

If the contract ends during probation, neither party is owed compensation and the worker is owed no end-of-service award.

A worker may not be put on probation more than once with the same employer, except by written agreement and where the new probation is for a different occupation or job, or at least 6 months have passed since the earlier relationship ended.

Leave and overtime

• Maternity leave: 12 weeks on full pay. The six weeks after delivery are mandatory, and the worker spreads the remaining six as she chooses, starting up to four weeks before the expected delivery date.
• Death of a brother or sister: 3 days on full pay. This leave is new.
• Marriage, or death of a spouse, ascendant or descendant: 5 days on full pay, as before. These leaves all run from the date of the event.
• Birth of a child: 3 days, as before, but now taken within 7 days of the birth.

So anyone who says paternity leave was increased has confused its length with its timing.

The worker may extend maternity leave by one month without pay. If she gives birth to a sick child, or a child with a disability who needs constant care, she is entitled to one month on full pay after maternity leave, which she may extend by a further month without pay.

Leave instead of overtime pay

Overtime pay is the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage.

What is new is that the employer, with the worker’s consent, may grant paid days of leave instead of that pay, under the Regulation’s rules:

• the leave may not be less than one and a half hours for each hour of overtime;
• the employer sets when it is taken, within no more than 60 days of the overtime being worked, unless the parties agree otherwise;
• it may not exceed 30 days a year in total;
• a worker who leaves before using it is paid for it.

From internal grievance to the labour court

If an employer imposes a disciplinary penalty on a worker, it must notify him in writing.

The worker may file a written grievance with the competent body within the employer’s organisation within 30 days of notification, excluding official holidays.

If the grievance is rejected, or not decided in writing within 15 days of filing, he may object before the labour court within 30 days, excluding official holidays, from the rejection or the end of the decision period, whichever comes first.

Other labour disputes over rights start with amicable settlement at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development through the “Wudi” platform.

If settlement fails within 21 working days of the first session, the dispute moves to the competent labour court, and the claim is filed through “Najiz”.

When you are handed a settlement to sign, or your resignation is left hanging, that is the time to see a lawyer, not afterwards.