When Conflict Becomes a Commercial Argument
The question has surfaced in legal offices across Dubai and Abu Dhabi with increasing frequency. A regional conflict intensifies. Shipping lanes face disruption. Insurance premiums climb. A client cancels a contract. And within days, an employer arrives at an employment law consultation armed with a phrase that has become something of a legal cure-all in difficult times: force majeure.
Force majeure — the doctrine that excuses a party from contractual obligations when an extraordinary event beyond their control makes performance impossible — has a legitimate and well-established place in commercial law. Its application to employment contracts in the UAE, however, is far more constrained than many employers assume, and far more nuanced than the casual invocation of the term suggests.
This article examines the legal foundation of force majeure under UAE law, what it can and cannot justify in the context of employment relationships, and what remedies are available to employees whose employers have reached for the doctrine as a convenient mechanism to avoid statutory obligations they would otherwise be bound to honour.
The Legal Foundation: Force Majeure Under UAE Civil Law
The UAE does not have a single codified definition of force majeure in its labour legislation. Instead, the doctrine derives from the UAE Civil Transactions Law — Federal Law No. 5 of 1985 and its amendments — which governs contractual obligations across all categories of civil and commercial relationships. Articles 273 and 893 of the Civil Transactions Law are the primary provisions. Article 273 establishes that if performance of an obligation becomes impossible due to a cause beyond the debtor's control, the obligation is extinguished and the contract terminated. Article 893 applies this framework specifically to contracts for services — a category that encompasses employment.
For force majeure to operate as a legal defence under UAE civil law, three conditions must be established concurrently. The event must be external — meaning it originates outside the operations of the employer and is not a result of the employer's own decisions, financial management, or commercial strategy. It must be unforeseeable at the time the contract was entered into. And it must make performance of the contract genuinely impossible, not merely more expensive, less profitable, or commercially inconvenient.
This three-part test is the threshold that many employer invocations of force majeure fail to satisfy when applied to employment contracts in the context of regional geopolitical events. The fact that a conflict is occurring somewhere in the broader region — even one with real effects on shipping, supply chains, or energy markets — does not automatically satisfy any of these three conditions in relation to a specific employment contract.
THE THREE-PART LEGAL TEST FOR FORCE MAJEURE IN THE UAE
Under Articles 273 and 893 of UAE Federal Law No. 5 of 1985 (Civil Transactions Law), force majeure requires: (1) the event is external to the party invoking it and not caused by their own conduct; (2) the event was unforeseeable at the time the contract was signed; and (3) performance of the specific contractual obligation is genuinely impossible — not merely more costly or commercially unattractive. All three conditions must be met simultaneously.
What Force Majeure Cannot Justify in UAE Employment Law
Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations is the governing instrument for private sector employment in the UAE. It is a piece of legislation that was deliberately designed to constrain the ability of employers to exit their statutory obligations through contractual mechanisms, and the courts have consistently interpreted it with that purpose in mind.
Unilateral Salary Reduction
An employer cannot rely on force majeure to impose a unilateral salary reduction. Wages are a primary obligation of the employment contract and are protected under the UAE Wage Protection System (WPS). A reduction in salary requires the employee's written consent under a formally varied contract, processed through MOHRE. An employer who reduces wages unilaterally, citing a conflict or geopolitical event as force majeure, exposes itself to a wage claim enforceable through MOHRE's dispute resolution mechanism and the labour courts. The fact that business has declined as a result of regional instability does not satisfy the impossibility requirement — it satisfies only the inconvenience requirement, which is legally insufficient.
Termination Without Statutory Entitlements
Force majeure cannot be used to terminate an employment contract without paying the statutory entitlements that Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 mandates on termination. These include notice period pay (or payment in lieu of notice), accrued annual leave encashment, and end of service gratuity. Even in a genuine force majeure scenario — where a business is truly unable to operate because of an extraordinary external event — the UAE courts have consistently held that the employee's entitlements crystallise at the moment of termination and must be paid. Force majeure extinguishes the ongoing obligation to continue employment; it does not retroactively extinguish entitlements already accrued.
Suspension of Employment Without Pay
Some employers have attempted to use force majeure as a basis for placing employees on indefinite unpaid suspension — neither terminating their contracts nor paying their wages, effectively freezing the employment relationship in a legal grey zone. This approach has no basis in Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021. The law provides specific mechanisms for temporary layoffs and reduced hours arrangements, which require MOHRE registration and in most cases employee consent. An unilateral unpaid suspension outside these mechanisms is a breach of contract regardless of the justification offered.
When Force Majeure Can Legitimately Apply: The Narrow Category
There is a category of genuinely extreme circumstances in which force majeure can operate lawfully in an employment context under UAE law. The paradigm case is total and immediate impossibility of the employment relationship continuing — for example, the physical destruction of a workplace through a direct strike on UAE territory, a complete and legally mandated shutdown of an entire sector by government order with no alternative operating arrangements, or a situation in which a specific employee cannot perform their role because they are personally and directly affected by a conflict event in a way that makes performance objectively impossible.
These scenarios are narrow. The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated government-mandated closures provided the most recent large-scale test of force majeure in UAE employment contexts. The UAE government's response at that time was instructive: rather than allowing employers to invoke force majeure freely, the government introduced specific regulatory guidance — including MOHRE ministerial decisions on temporary salary adjustments and flexible working arrangements — that effectively superseded general force majeure doctrine and channelled employer responses through approved mechanisms. This approach signalled clearly that the government's preference is for structured regulatory solutions over open-ended contractual escape routes.
A regional conflict that affects the UAE's economic environment but does not directly prevent a specific employer from operating, or a specific employee from performing their role, is unlikely to meet the impossibility standard. Courts examining force majeure claims in commercial contexts routinely reject arguments based on market disruption, reduced demand, or increased costs — and there is no reason to expect a more generous judicial approach in employment cases.
The Geopolitical Context: Regional Conflict and UAE Business Reality
The UAE's geographic and economic position makes it sensitive to regional instability in ways that are real and measurable. Shipping insurance costs rise when conflict threatens Gulf waterways. Regional clients reduce capital expenditure. Supply chains for goods transiting through the Gulf face disruption. These are genuine commercial pressures and they affect UAE-based businesses, including employers.
None of this, however, translates automatically into a legal force majeure argument in respect of an employee's contract. The UAE economy has demonstrated extraordinary resilience and diversification across successive periods of regional instability. Its financial, logistics, and professional services sectors have in many cases benefited from their position as a stable hub during periods of regional turbulence. The narrative of a UAE employer whose business has been rendered genuinely impossible by regional conflict — as opposed to challenged, disrupted, or made less profitable — will face intense judicial scrutiny.
Legal practitioners advising both employers and employees in the UAE consistently note that the employers most likely to invoke force majeure are those seeking to avoid paying statutory obligations they would find burdensome regardless of any geopolitical context. Courts are aware of this and approach force majeure defences in employment cases with a degree of scepticism that employers invoking the doctrine should anticipate from the outset.
What Employees Should Do If Force Majeure Is Invoked Against Them
An employee who receives notice that their employer is invoking force majeure — whether to justify a salary reduction, a suspension, or a termination without full entitlements — should take several steps in sequence without delay.
The first step is to document everything. Any written communication from the employer invoking force majeure should be retained. Any verbal communications of significance should be followed up in writing by the employee to create a documentary record.
The second step is to file a complaint with MOHRE through the online portal or the MOHRE app. MOHRE's dispute resolution process is fast, free, and accessible and it provides an immediate formal record of the dispute. For wage protection violations — including salary reductions or non payment — MOHRE has enforcement powers that it exercises without requiring the employee to commence court proceedings.
The third step, where the matter is not resolved through MOHRE mediation, is to engage a UAE licensed employment lawyer and proceed to the labour courts. UAE labour courts are employee-friendly forums. The burden of proof in force majeure defences rests on the employer, and the standard of proof is high. An employee with documented entitlements and a clear record of the employer's conduct is well positioned.
IF YOUR EMPLOYER INVOKES FORCE MAJEURE: THREE IMMEDIATE STEPS
1. Document all communications in writing — retain every email, message, or letter in which force majeure is mentioned. 2. File a complaint with MOHRE immediately through the MOHRE app or portal (800 60). MOHRE has direct enforcement powers over wage violations and can act without court proceedings. 3. Consult a UAE licensed employment lawyer — the burden of proving force majeure rests entirely on the employer, and the legal threshold is high.
Conclusion: A Doctrine With Real Limits in UAE Employment Law
Force majeure is a legitimate legal doctrine. It has a proper role in commercial contracts when extraordinary events genuinely make performance impossible. What it is not — and what UAE law, MOHRE regulation, and judicial practice consistently confirm — is a mechanism for employers to shed statutory obligations that have become commercially inconvenient.
The invocation of war, conflict, or regional instability as force majeure in an employment context will be scrutinised carefully by any tribunal or court that examines it. Employees have substantial protections under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 that do not dissolve simply because an employer attaches the words force majeure to a letter. Knowing those protections, documenting the facts, and engaging the MOHRE dispute mechanism early are the most effective responses available.
For legal practitioners advising employers, the message is equally clear: force majeure is not a cost-cutting mechanism, it is a doctrine of last resort applicable only to genuine impossibility, and using it as the former when it does not qualify as the latter creates liability that often exceeds the obligation the employer sought to avoid.