My work contract states I have 30 calendar days of vacation. My work contract also states I have 40 hours of work to perform per week. The office I work in is open 5 days a week from Sunday to Thursday.
My company is now telling me I only have 22 days of vacation per year and not 30. Are they allowed to take eight days away without changing my contract? Is this legal?
Name withheld
Answer: Your company is totally wrong and so are you on some points.
First of all you are entitled to 30 ‘working’ days annual leave and not 30 calendar days because the weekend offs are not considered and you must be paid for these days with the calculation done as follows:
30 ÷ 26 x salary
Secondly, it doesn’t matter if your company is open 5 or 6 days a week, the annual leave entitlement doesn’t change.
And lastly, even if the contract is changed to 22 days the company will be in violation of the Labor Law and this contract will not be accepted.
The law has laid down the minimum and this is ‘30 working days’ annual leave and nothing less.



Annual leave

I am employed in a private company for the past one year, and I was hired from abroad. I intend to avail my annual leave from Oct 15 to Nov 13 (30 days). One of my lawyer friends advised me that, as per Article 70 of the new Labor Law, I am entitled to an additional payment of three days salary on account of the Eid Al-Adha falling during my annual vacation. However, our finance dept has not accepted this stating that Article 70 enables the employee to extend the eligible days by the number of holidays. That means, I can avail 33 days instead of 30 days, but the payment is limited to only 30 days. Please clarify which is correct.
Name withheld
Answer: Your company is right. According to the law you are entitled to 30 working days paid leave, which means the weekly offs are not counted nor are any official holidays within that period. This means that with Eid Al-Adha falling on a Friday and three days holidays for Eid and one day for the Standing at Arafat, you should be able to add 7 days to your vacation because you can also add the remaining three Fridays. You, however, will be paid for 30 working days to be calculated as follows:
30 ÷ 26 x your salary.