An employee shall be paid leave salary equal to his basic wage plus the housing allowance, if applicable, during the annual leave. If work circumstances required keeping the employee during all or part of his annual leave and the leave has not been carried over to the following year, then employer shall pay him his wage in addition to a leave allowance for the days he worked equal to his basic wage. In all cases, no employee shall be required to work during his annual leaves more than once during two consecutive years. According to the law, before taking the annual leave, the employee shall be paid his full wage, plus the wage for the leave days he is entitled to. Therefore in your case, if your employer fails to pay your leave salary for four years, then you are entitled to claim only two years leave salary as per the law as you will lose all your entitlements, except gratuity, after a period of one year of your entitlement.

Scheduled to begin on January 15, the 14th edition of the DSF is set to open at a time of global financial turmoil, but the organisers say DSF 2009 will deliver.

Dubai looks her best during the DSF when every nook and corner of the city is lit up with over a million lights and colourful decorations.

Over 3.2 million people visited DSF 2008 with the expenditure touching Dh10 billion.

The participating retail outlets of the DSF and the various shopping malls are expecting a windfall. With the December sale already in session at the various retail outlets across the city, products are being sold at discounts of over 70 per cent.

Though they have not yet announced the promotional offers for the season, retail outlets have pledged their entire support to the DSFO (Dubai Shopping Festival Office) by lining up attractive discounts and raffle draws to lure the crowds into the shopping malls and retail outlets.

Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman of Dubai Shopping Festival Office (DSFO) Supreme Committee said the UAE economy is robust enough to ride out the current difficulties and continue to achieve good economic growth rates.

“There is a tireless endeavour to tackle the economic turmoil and hold events that can contribute to reviving several economic sectors, primarily retail trade and tourism,” he said.

“This year’s edition of DSF comes at a time when the entire world is experiencing an acute period of economic crisis with a number of leading world economies having drifted into economic recession.”

He stressed on the importance of strong partnership between the private and public sectors.

Laila Suhail, Chief Executive Officer of the DSF Office said, “The 2009 edition of DSF is laying emphasis on an exclusive period of world-class shopping and family entertainment.

“The private sector will have the major share of organising the entertainment activities, namely 70 per cent of them, while the role of the Dubai government, represented by the DSF Office, will be to plan and market these activities.”

She added that under the current financial circumstances, optimism was needed and the promotions to be launched in DSF will provide high purchasing incentives for those coming to visit Dubai during the festival where the best of world brands are at hand, besides the lure of prizes worth millions of dirhams.

The list of sponsors for this year’s edition includes some of the country’s largest private sector companies and institutions.

Dubai Retail, a member of Dubai Properties will join in with The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence, in addition to Dubai Mall, both coming on board as two new sponsors.

The Dubai Mall will be a primary venue for many of the DSF festivities and will offer promotions and entertainment throughout the festival period.

The DSFO along with the Dubai Tourism Commerce and Marketing will be launching an aggressive marketing campaign that will coincide with the beginning of DSF 2009.

The ambitious campaign is co-designed with the leading hotels in Dubai and will target different markets.

Passengers who may have decided to go on holidays to their favourite destinations can still go for late bookings. In previous years, travelers had to book months ahead of their travel dates.

This year, many holiday goers have foregone Christmas vacations. Jane Kimberly, a British expatriate residing in Dubai said, “Last Christmas, I visited my brother in Hong Kong and the Christmas before that I made a trip to Beijing. But this year, I’ve decided to stay here in Dubai and spend time with my friends and family. Many of my friends, who have already left for home, had made travel plans a few months ago and paid for it when the ticket prices weren’t that expensive.”

John Brighton, another British expatriate, agreed saying that most expatriates had already left town sticking to their travel plans because they were made in advance. “But I guess by next year, there will be a visible reduction in both tourism and aviation industry.”

An official from the Emirates Airlines told Khaleej Times that although growth was not as high as experienced last year, the numbers looked healthy. “Some of the popular destinations for travel in the holiday season are Lebanon, Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and the United Kingdom,” the official said.

Thomas Clarke, Etihad’s Media Relations Officer, confirmed the bullish situation, saying the seat factor of Etihad stood at 74 per cent in November. “But there has been a growing trend of late bookings across our network,” he said.

Paul Starrs, commercial manager of British Airways for Middle East, said the industry had been severely affected by the global economic downturn, but bookings throughout the year, especially during the current holiday season, remain positive.

“Middle East continues to be a vitally important market for the airline,” he added.