Can my employer keep rejecting the annual leave dates I request in the UAE?

The employer's power here is real but not unlimited. Under UAE labour law the company may set leave timing according to work requirements — that part is true — but annual leave itself is a statutory entitlement, and a scheduling power used to deny leave altogether stops being scheduling and becomes a violation. More than a year of refusals, on every request, with no alternative dates ever offered, is well past that line. Build the record first: submit requests through the official channel, offer two or three alternative windows each time, and keep the rejections in writing. Then escalate internally — a short, factual email to HR noting that no leave has been approved in over a year and asking for confirmed dates within a defined period. If that produces nothing, file a complaint with MOHRE; a documented pattern of blanket refusals is exactly what mediators respond to. Remember also that accrued untaken leave must be compensated at end of service, so the record you build protects your money either way. An employment lawyer licensed in the UAE can help frame the complaint so it lands as a denial of entitlement rather than a scheduling quarrel.