Article 3 of the Decree-Law applies it to every establishment, employer, and worker in the UAE private sector. It also applies to free zones that do not have their own labour laws. It does not apply to the Dubai International Financial Centre or the Abu Dhabi Global Market — both have separate statutes and their own courts. See the DIFC track for the DIFC regime.
Several groups are expressly exempted and regulated by parallel regimes:
- Federal and local government employees — government-sector employees fall under a separate parallel regulatory framework.
- Members of the armed forces, police, and security personnel — sector-specific service regulations apply.
- Domestic workers — domestic worker employment is governed by separate legislation, administered through Tadbeer service centres, not the standard MOHRE permit system. Household staff (drivers, nannies, cooks, private nurses) are recruited via that Tadbeer route.
The statute also carves out a distinct "Juvenile" category — every person aged 15 up to 18. Juveniles work under their own permit type with sector and working-hour restrictions, sitting alongside the domestic-worker regime as a specialised sub-track.
Two edge cases trip employers regularly. Interns on a structured training programme governed by a training contract typically fall outside the law's core wage and gratuity provisions until they convert to full employment. And workers seconded into the UAE by a foreign employer for a fixed project may remain governed by their home-country contract for tax and pension purposes, but their day-to-day working conditions on UAE soil still fall under Federal Decree-Law No. 33/2021 as a matter of public policy.