Can I leave my job without notice in Kuwait?
Only in the cases listed in Article 48, which also keep your full indemnity. Otherwise you owe your employer your wage for the notice period (Art. 44).
Checked 21 October 2026
Get your datesEvery deadline as a date, from your last working day.
What to do now
- Check whether one of the six Article 48 cases fits, and gather the evidence.
- If none fits, ask your employer for an earlier last day in writing.
- Build your leaving plan for the claim deadline.
See an example plan
What to ask HR
- Will you agree to waive my notice, in writing?
- What indemnity will you pay, and how did you work it out?
The Article 48 cases
You may end the contract without notice, and keep your full indemnity, if:
- Your employer does not keep to the contract or the law.
- Your employer assaults you.
- Staying in the job puts your health at serious risk, as the Medical Arbitration Committee finds.
- Your employer used fraud about the job when you were hired.
- Your employer accused you of something and you were acquitted.
- Your employer commits an immoral act against you.
Keep evidence: messages, payslips, medical reports and police or court papers.
When you leave for one of these reasons, the full indemnity is due (Art. 52).
Without one of those cases
On an open-ended contract, you owe your employer a notice allowance equal to your wage for the notice period (Art. 44).
For a monthly-paid worker that means 3 months' wage. For anyone else, 1 month's.
On a fixed-term contract, you may owe compensation for the damage, up to your wage for the rest of the term (Art. 47).
Absence counts as resigning
Stop coming in without an acceptable reason for 7 days running, or 20 days in a year, and you may be treated as resigned (Art. 42).
Then the resignation shares in Article 53 apply to your indemnity.
Your indemnity after a resignation
- Under 3 years: nothing.
- 3 years until you reach 5: half.
- 5 years until you reach 10: two thirds.
- 10 years or more: all of it.
These shares are for open-ended contracts (Art. 53). Debts or loans you owe your employer can be deducted from the indemnity (Art. 51).
A better route
Ask your employer to agree an earlier last day, in writing, before you stop work.
Get the indemnity amount in the same document, because a mutual agreement is not on the full-indemnity list (Art. 52).
If you are not paid
Take it to PAM before any court (Art. 146). Claims your employer denies are not heard 1 year after the contract ends (Art. 144).