UAE government workers get long weekends in new 4.5-day work week
- The UAE is moving from the regional norm Friday-Saturday weekends to improve competitiveness
- Under the new timetable, the public-sector weekend starts at noon on Friday and ends on Sunday
The United Arab Emirates is slashing its official working week to 4.5 days and moving its weekend to Saturday and Sunday, in a major shift aimed at improving competitiveness, officials said.
The “national working week” is mandatory for government bodies from January 1 and bucks the regional norm of a full day off on Friday for Muslim prayers.
Scott Livermore, chief economist at Oxford Economics Middle East, an advisory firm, said businesses could choose their working week but were likely to align with the public sector.
While becoming the only Gulf country not to have a Friday-Saturday weekend, the resource-rich and ambitious UAE now comes into line with the non-Arab world.
Under the new timetable, the public-sector weekend starts at noon on Fridays and ends on Sunday. Friday prayers at mosques will be held after 1.15pm.
The move, which also includes schools, is intended to “better align the UAE with global markets”, said state news agency WAM, calling the new working week the world’s shortest.
“The UAE is the first nation in the world to introduce a national working week shorter than the global five-day week,” it said.