United Arab Emirates Payroll Outsourcing Alert

United Arab Emirates – UAE Announces New Weekend Days for Government Employees.

The UAE will transition to a four-and-a-half-day workweek from January 1, 2022. This will see government employees get Saturday and Sunday, and Friday half-day as the new weekend.

Many private sector companies are also likely to shift the weekend to Saturday-Sunday for their employees.

Weekend Duration

The working week will begin on Monday and end on Friday afternoon. The working hours for federal employees are set from 7:30am to 3:30pm with 8.5 working hours per day. On Friday employees will work only 4.5 hours.

In addition, on Fridays employees will be given the option to either commute to work or work from home. Friday prayers will also be held after 1:15pm all year long. The aim of the longer weekends is to boost productivity and improve work life balance making the UAE the first country in the world to have a working week shorter than the global five-day week.

Economic Alignment

Alongside helping reflect the country’s status globally, this economic alignment also helps UAE’s financial sector align itself with global real time trading such as driving global stock markets, banks and other financial institutions.

The move will help facilitate stronger business links for local and multinational corporations and help create more trading opportunities as well as provide the general public with flexible and enjoyable lifestyle.