What unpaid leave is
Unpaid leave, also called leave without pay, is a period in which an employee is away from work with permission and earns no wage for it. In the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) its provision is Article 116, a single sentence, short and exact:
«يجوز للعامل بموافقة صاحب العمل الحصول على إجازة دون أجر، يتفق الطرفان على تحديد مدتها، ويعد عقد العمل موقوفاً خلال مدة الإجازة فيما زاد على عشرين يوماً، ما لم يتفق الطرفان على خلاف ذلك.»
In our own rendering, which is not an official translation, Article 116 of the Labor Law provides that the worker may, with the employer’s consent, take leave without pay for a period the two parties agree on, and that the employment contract is treated as suspended during the leave for whatever exceeds twenty days, unless the parties agree otherwise.
What Article 116 of the Labor Law settles about unpaid leave
- It is not an entitlement. Article 116 of the Labor Law says the worker may take the leave with the employer’s consent, so the leave depends on that consent. That separates it from annual leave, which the Labor Law grants as a right, as set out in our guide to the annual leave balance.
- The length is agreed. Article 116 of the Labor Law sets no minimum and no maximum. The two parties fix the period between them.
- Suspension applies only to what exceeds twenty days, not to the whole leave. A leave of thirty days does not suspend the contract for thirty days.
- The parties may agree otherwise, by the wording of the same sentence. This last qualifier is the one that can drop out when the provision is summarised, and dropping it turns a rule the parties may vary into a mandatory one.
Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية) sets out what the suspension does, in two paragraphs. Under the first, where the agreed unpaid leave exceeds twenty days and the contract has become suspended, all the effects arising from the employment contract stop accordingly, unless the parties agree otherwise. Under the second, a fixed term contract is extended by the length of the suspension, again unless the parties agree otherwise. Both paragraphs of Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation carry the same qualifier as Article 116 of the Labor Law, and a summary of Article 25 that leaves it out repeats the omission described in point 4. Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation is written for the case in which suspension has in fact occurred; it does not make suspension automatic.
A worked example of unpaid leave and suspension
Take a fixed term contract of twelve months ending on 31 December. During it the employee takes 50 days of unpaid leave, and the parties have made no agreement departing from Article 116 of the Labor Law or from Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation:
- The period of suspension: 50 minus 20, which is 30 days, because Article 116 of the Labor Law suspends the contract for whatever exceeds twenty days.
- The effect on the term: under Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation the contract is extended by the length of its suspension, so by 30 days, and it ends on 30 January instead of 31 December. The difference between the two kinds of contract is explained in our guide to fixed term and indefinite contracts.
One reading extends the contract by 50 days, treating the whole leave as suspension, and so adds 20 days that the text does not support. The opposite reading does not extend the contract at all, and so takes 30 days out of its term. Between those two readings lie 50 days on a single contract.
The twenty days remain open to a different agreement by the wording of the same sentence. If the parties agreed in writing that the contract would not be suspended at all, there would be no suspension and no extension; if they agreed that it would be suspended from the first day, the suspension would be 50 days. Because the second paragraph of Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation carries its qualifier separately, the extension can also be agreed on its own terms. What decides the outcome is what was written, not the bare number.
Unpaid leave and the other twenty day rules in the Labor Law
The same number appears in three provisions with three different effects, and writing it without the Article it comes from is a ready source of a wrong sentence on the subject:
| Provision | What the twenty days refer to | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| Article 116 of the Labor Law | the agreed length of unpaid leave | the contract is suspended for whatever exceeds it, unless the parties agree otherwise |
| Article 2 of the Labor Law, item 3 of the definition of continuous service | absence from work without pay, intermittent, within the work year | service counts as continuous for absence up to that length |
| Article 80 of the Labor Law, case 7 | absence without lawful cause | a written warning becomes due; dismissal is available above thirty days in one contract year or above fifteen consecutive days |
Article 2 of the Labor Law states when service is continuous. It attaches no consequence to exceeding the twenty days and does not say what happens on the 21st day. The faithful statement is the one the text supports: unpaid absence of no more than twenty intermittent days within the work year does not break continuous service, and the statement stops there. Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H amended Article 2 of the Labor Law. That decree did not amend the definition of continuous service in Article 2 of the Labor Law, so the twenty days are not a 2025 change.
Article 80 of the Labor Law concerns dismissal, not the counting of periods. Its condition of absence without lawful cause is part of the rule, and dismissal under it arises after more than thirty days in one contract year, or more than fifteen consecutive days, not at twenty. Under Article 80 of the Labor Law the warning falls due after twenty days in the first case and after ten days in the second. The dismissal route is covered in our guide to dismissal under Articles 80 and 81 of the Labor Law.
How a leave under Article 116 of the Labor Law counts in the continuous service calculation of Article 2 of the Labor Law is settled by neither provision, and in the sources we reviewed we found no other provision that settles it.
Unpaid periods that are not unpaid leave under Article 116 of the Labor Law
Not every period without pay passes through the consent of Article 116 of the Labor Law. Other provisions of the same Law cover unpaid periods, each with a separate condition:
- Article 115 of the Labor Law, examination leave. It gives a worker whose enrolment in an educational institution the employer approved, or whose continuing in one the employer accepted, leave on full pay for an examination in a year that is not being repeated, for the actual days of the examination, and leave without pay for the same days where the year is being repeated. If the employer did not approve the enrolment, the worker may take the examination days from annual leave where a balance exists, and failing that as leave without pay. The worker must apply at least fifteen days before the leave.
- Article 151 of the Labor Law, maternity leave. It allows a female worker in all cases to extend maternity leave by one month without pay, and where the child is born ill or with a disability and the child’s condition requires a constant companion, to take a further month on full pay and then extend it by one month without pay. Where the birth comes later than the expected date and less than six weeks of the leave remain, the completing period counts as leave without pay.
- Article 160 of the Labor Law, iddah leave. A Muslim female worker whose husband dies and who is pregnant may extend her iddah leave without pay until she gives birth, as set out in our guide to dismissal protection and iddah leave.
- Article 117 of the Labor Law, sick leave. Its scale of pay within a single year ends in thirty days without pay, after the first thirty days on full pay and the following sixty at three quarters of the wage.
Article 117 of the Labor Law deserves a closer look, because its last stage can be confused with Article 116 of the Labor Law. The scale runs within a single year counted from the first sick leave, and applies whether the days are continuous or intermittent: thirty days on full pay, then sixty at three quarters of the wage, then thirty without pay. Those final thirty days are not unpaid leave in the sense of Article 116 of the Labor Law. They are a stage in a graduated entitlement, not a leave the worker requests and the employer approves, so the conditions of Article 116 of the Labor Law do not apply to them and neither does its suspension rule. The difference is practical, not verbal: one begins with a request and a consent, the other with an illness established by a medical report, and neither is counted against the balance of the other. The scale is covered in our guide to sick leave and occasion leave.
None of these provisions makes the leave depend on the employer’s consent in the way Article 116 of the Labor Law does, and the suspension rule of Article 116 is not written for any of them. Carrying the consent condition over to them adds to the text something it does not contain, and carrying the twenty day rule over to them moves it out of its place.
Unpaid leave and the bar on working for another employer
Article 118 of the Labor Law provides that a worker may not, while on any of the leaves set out in its chapter, work for another employer. If the employer proves a breach, the employer may withhold the worker’s pay for the period of the leave or recover what was already paid of it. The provision is written for all the leaves of that chapter, and we set it out as written; in the sources we reviewed we found nothing that sets out its effect on a leave that carries no pay. It sits in the chapter on leave and applies to the leaves in it. It is not a general rule on working for others, and nothing outside that chapter is to be inferred from it.
Unpaid leave, end of service and social insurance
Article 116 of the Labor Law leaves the length of unpaid leave to the parties and sets no ceiling. It also states no required reason, no form for the request and no notice period for making it, and it attaches no consequence to the employer’s refusal and does not require the employer to give reasons for one.
On the end of service award and the annual leave balance, Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation provides that where unpaid leave exceeds twenty days and the contract has become suspended, all the effects arising from the employment contract stop accordingly, unless the parties agree otherwise. We render that wording as it stands and do not apply it item by item to each entitlement; in the sources we reviewed we found no provision that does. The award itself is covered under end of service calculation.
Social insurance contributions have a provision in their own instrument. Article 20 of the Implementing Regulation of the Social Insurance Law (اللائحة التنفيذية لنظام التأمينات الاجتماعية) provides that contributions continue to be paid in situations that include absence without pay authorised by the employer, alongside secondment and statutory leave. So under Article 20 of the Implementing Regulation of the Social Insurance Law, an authorised unpaid leave does not stop the contribution. That is a rule on continued payment; in the sources we reviewed we found nothing that settles the wage on which the contribution is calculated for that month, so we build no amount on it.
Whatever the parties agree about the leave, the agreement is governed by Article 8 of the Labor Law: any condition contrary to its provisions is void, and so is any release or settlement of the rights it gives the worker, made while the employment contract is in force, unless it is more favourable to the worker. The room for agreement that Article 116 of the Labor Law opens on suspension is not room to give up an established entitlement.
The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Article 2 (continuous service), Article 8 (void conditions and releases), Article 80 (absence as a ground for dismissal), Articles 115, 116, 117 and 118 (examination leave, unpaid leave, sick leave and the bar on working elsewhere during leave), Article 151 (maternity leave) and Article 160 (iddah leave); together with Article 25 of the Implementing Regulation and Article 20 of the Implementing Regulation of the Social Insurance Law. Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H, in force since 19 February 2025, amended Article 151 of the Labor Law, and the unpaid month of extension was in that Article before the amendment as well. Articles 116, 117 and 118 of the Labor Law carry no amendment footnote in the consolidated text the Ministry publishes.
Before unpaid leave is approved
An approval of unpaid leave can be put in writing rather than given by word of mouth, because the text itself makes three things turn on it: that the leave exists, how long it lasts, and what the parties agreed about suspension and about the extension of a fixed term. Whatever is not written down is left to interpretation if a dispute arises.
This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.
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