Federal Decree-Law 33/2021 prohibits discrimination and harassment at work. What makes this policy work in the UAE is the workforce: many nationalities, many first languages, and many people whose residence depends on their job. **The barrier to reporting is not policy — it is fear that complaining costs you your visa.** Address that directly or the policy does nothing.
Respect at Work
Anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and reporting
Federal Decree-Law 33/2021 prohibits discrimination and harassment at work. What makes this policy work in the UAE is the workforce: many nationalities, many first languages, and many people whose residence depends on their job. The barrier to reporting is not policy — it is fear that complaining costs you your visa. Address that directly or the policy does nothing.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Employer | [COMPANY NAME], licence [NUMBER] |
| Applies to | All employees, contractors, agency staff and visitors |
| Reporting contacts | [NAME], [EMAIL] [NAME], [EMAIL] |
| Alternative contact outside the line manager | [NAME], [DESIGNATION] |
| Languages available | [LIST] |
| Approved by | [NAME], [DESIGNATION], on [DATE] |
| Version and date | [NUMBER], [DATE] |
| Review | Annually |
1. What Is Not Acceptable
1.1The Company prohibits discrimination — treating someone less favourably on a ground protected by law, including in recruitment, pay, promotion, training, discipline and termination.
1.2The Company prohibits harassment — unwanted conduct that violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading or offensive environment.
1.3The Company prohibits sexual harassment, including unwanted physical contact, sexual comments, requests for sexual favours, and the display or circulation of sexual material.
1.4The Company prohibits bullying — repeated behaviour that intimidates, humiliates or undermines.
1.5The Company prohibits victimisation — treating someone badly because they raised a concern or supported someone else who did.
| Behaviour | Examples |
|---|---|
| Discrimination | Excluding a nationality from a role or a shift pattern; different pay for the same work without objective justification; refusing training on assumptions about someone’s background |
| Harassment | Mockery of accent, religion, appearance or nationality; jokes at a group’s expense; isolating someone from work conversation |
| Sexual harassment | Unwanted touching; persistent comments about appearance; sexual images; conditioning a work benefit on a personal relationship |
| Bullying | Persistent unwarranted criticism; setting someone up to fail; shouting; public humiliation |
| Victimisation | Removing hours, changing shifts, threatening a visa, or excluding someone after they complained |
1.6The test is the effect on the person, not the intention of the speaker. "It was a joke" is not a defence, and it is the most common response received.
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In a workforce where residence depends on employment, the barrier to reporting is not the absence of a policy — it is the belief that complaining costs you your visa. A policy that does not address that directly will not be used, and the resulting silence will be misread as the absence of a problem. Section 2 exists for this reason and should not be softened.
Dismissal because an employee raised a legitimate complaint may amount to arbitrary dismissal with compensation of up to three months’ salary in addition to other entitlements. Say so in the policy — it tells employees the protection is not merely a promise from the employer.
A policy circulated in English to a workforce that reads Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Malayalam or Arabic has been distributed, not communicated. Translate it, deliver induction in those languages, and record which was used.
The most common response to a complaint is that it was a joke and no offence was meant. That is not a defence. Stating the test in the policy saves the argument being had from scratch in every investigation.
Interim measures are necessary but they must not fall on the person who complained. Changing the complainant’s shift, desk or reporting line is experienced as a penalty and it deters everyone watching. Move the other party or change reporting lines instead.
Even where a harassment finding is entirely correct, imposing a penalty outside the statutory list — an unpaid suspension, a pay cut, a punitive transfer — creates a claim. Get the finding right and then get the sanction right.
Retaliation usually begins quietly once attention has moved on — hours reduced, exclusion from meetings, a poor review. Scheduled follow-up at four and twelve weeks catches it, and its absence is why complainants say the process made things worse.
A concern raised in a corridor conversation is still a concern. A manager who waits for a formal written complaint has failed to act, and the organisation is on notice from the moment the manager knew.
A serious allegation cannot be investigated without the person complained of learning of it. Promising secrecy and then breaking it destroys trust more thoroughly than being honest at the start about what will happen.
One complaint is an incident. The same individual or the same team appearing repeatedly is a pattern, and nobody sees it unless someone deliberately looks. A quarterly review of the confidential register is the highest-value control in this policy.
Discrimination in the UAE workplace is more often structural than explicit — nationality-linked pay bands, roles closed to certain groups, shift patterns allocated by background. An annual review of pay and promotion decisions surfaces what no complaint will.
Harassment by or towards contractors, agency workers and visitors affects your workplace and your employees. The policy applies to conduct in your workplace regardless of who employs the individual.
Investigation notes, accounts, the decision and the reasoning need retaining, and sensitive personal data — which this is — should be held separately with restricted access under the applicable data protection regime.
Regional practice is moving towards more prescriptive workplace fairness obligations. A company with a genuine policy, real reporting routes and evidence of use is positioned for that; one relying on a document nobody has read is not.
Reflects UAE law current as of {{DATE OF USE}}. Federal Decree-Law 33/2021 has been amended, and provisions on discrimination, harassment, permitted disciplinary penalties, arbitrary dismissal compensation and the MOHRE complaint process change — confirm the current position with MOHRE or a UAE employment adviser, and note that DIFC and ADGM apply their own codes.
This is a ready-to-use template provided for convenience. Laws and requirements change, and every situation is different — please have it reviewed by a qualified professional (a lawyer, corporate secretary, or accountant as relevant) before you rely on it.