The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government announced a big change implementing a new four-and-a-half-day workweek from January 1, 2022, as part of the government’s efforts to boost work-life balance and enhance social wellbeing.
Officials said the weekend will be moved to Saturday and Sunday from Friday and Saturday.
The “national working week” will be mandatory for government bodies from January and aims to improve work-life balance and economic competitiveness, state media said on Tuesday.
“The UAE is the first nation in the world to introduce a national working week shorter than the global five-day week,” official news agency WAM reported.
The change will affect federal government institutions having new working hours, with Monday to Thursday workdays beginning at 7:30 am and finishing at 3:30 pm, and Friday work hours starting at 7:30 am and ending at noon.
Along with the change, Friday sermons and prayers will begin at 1:15 pm across the UAE.
Government employees will have the option of working from home on Fridays and scheduling their work hours flexi-time.
Bringing in the new change, UAE would become the first country in the world to implement a national work week that is shorter than the worldwide five-day week.
Also, UAE will be the only GCC country with a Saturday-Sunday weekend.
“The extended weekend comes as part of the UAE government’s efforts to boost work-life balance and enhance social wellbeing while increasing performance to advance the UAE’s economic competitiveness.”
With the new change in the working week, UAE would better connect with the global markets from an economic standpoint, reflecting the country’s strategic position on the global economic map.
It would, of course, facilitate greater international business relations. The change would also attract more, including Indians, to UAE. At present, the Indian diaspora consists of around 30 per cent, about 3.42 million, of the country’s population.
