GCC HR Compliance Checklist: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman
A consolidated HR and payroll compliance checklist across the four largest GCC labour markets, with what HR teams should track every month to stay audit-ready.
Running HR across the GCC means running four-plus different labour regimes in parallel. Same employee profile, different rules. This checklist is the one most operations and HR teams keep close: a working baseline of what to track every month, country by country.
Disclaimer: this is an operational checklist, not legal advice. Laws and circulars change, so pair this with current MoHRE / HRSD / MoL guidance.
United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪
- WPS SIF submitted to agent bank within the salary deadline
- Emirates ID and visa expiries tracked with 30/60/90-day reminders
- Labour card active and matched to MoHRE establishment
- End-of-service gratuity provisioned monthly per Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021
- Limited-term vs unlimited-term contracts correctly flagged (the rules diverged then re-converged, so check your contract types)
- Annual leave balance tracked at 30 calendar days for full year; pro-rated for partial year
- Sick leave capped per the statutory bands (15 full + 30 half + 45 unpaid)
- Maternity leave at 60 calendar days (45 full + 15 half) with applicable extensions
- DEWS / savings scheme contributions tracked for DIFC employees
- Hajj leave policy documented for Muslim employees
- Employment contracts registered with MoHRE within 14 days of joining
Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
- Mudad payroll submission completed monthly
- GOSI contributions calculated and submitted (Saudi vs non-Saudi rates)
- Saudization (Nitaqat) ratios monitored per category
- Iqama and work permit expiries tracked
- End-of-service gratuity per Saudi Labour Law (half-month for first 5 years, full month thereafter)
- Annual leave at 21 calendar days minimum (30 after 5 years)
- Sick leave per the Saudi Labour Law graded bands
- Female employee maternity leave at 10 weeks
- Qiwa contract registration for new hires
- Wage protection payments via approved channels
Qatar 🇶🇦
- Qatar WPS (administered via QCB / MoL) submitted monthly through approved bank
- QID and visa expiries tracked with reminders
- End-of-service gratuity at 3 weeks’ basic salary per year of service (minimum)
- Annual leave at 3 weeks (less than 5 years) or 4 weeks (5+ years)
- Sick leave per graded bands (2 weeks full pay → 4 weeks half pay → 2 weeks no pay)
- Health card active and linked
- Approved employment contracts registered with MoL
Oman 🇴🇲
- WPS Oman submission via approved bank
- Civil ID and labour card expiries tracked
- Omanization ratios monitored by sector
- End-of-service gratuity per Oman Labour Law (15 days basic for first 3 years, 1 month thereafter)
- Annual leave at 30 calendar days after 6 months
- Social Security contributions for Omani employees (PASI)
- Employment contracts registered with the Ministry of Labour
Cross-country checklist
These apply everywhere:
- Single source of truth for employee master data, not five spreadsheets
- Document expiry dashboard with HR + employee notifications
- Audit trail of every salary, contract and document change
- Bilingual (English + Arabic) data where needed
- Backup and DR plan for payroll cycles
- Role-based access with least-privilege defaults
Where most teams trip up
The biggest single source of compliance pain we see isn’t policy, it’s data hygiene. Visa numbers in the wrong format, salary breakdowns that don’t reconcile, employee records duplicated across spreadsheets after a project moved from one entity to another.
The fix isn’t more checklists. It’s putting all of this on one auditable platform with field-level validations and an audit log. Core HR, payroll and compliance reporting are designed exactly for this, across the four major GCC regimes.
Need a country-specific compliance walkthrough on StimesERP Lite? Book a demo and we’ll bring sample data for your country.