Does resigning before my contract ends reduce my gratuity in the UAE?

No, resigning before your fixed-term contract ends does not reduce your gratuity under the current law; the rule your colleague remembers belongs to the old regime. Before the current Labour Law took effect, employees who resigned from unlimited contracts with shorter service received only a fraction of their gratuity. Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 abolished that approach: any worker who completes at least one year of continuous service is entitled to the full end-of-service calculation regardless of who ends the contract or why. With almost three years of service, you would receive twenty-one days of basic wage for each year, calculated on your final basic salary, with any partial year paid pro rata. What you must still do is resign properly: give the written notice your contract requires, normally between thirty and ninety days, and either work it or agree an alternative, because skipping notice means compensating the employer for that period. Also confirm that unused annual leave is paid out alongside the gratuity in your final settlement, and ask HR for a written end-of-service breakdown before your last day. If your employer disputes the figure, a UAE labour lawyer can recalculate your entitlement independently.