UAE Changes its Working Week

The UAE has announced that it has altered it’s working week from the beginning of next year, and in doing so has become the first nation in the world to introduce a national working week shorter than the global five-day week.

From 1 January 2022, the UAE’s working week will be Monday to noon on Friday, and the weekend will now be Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday.

All Federal government departments, including schools, will move to the new weekend from 1st January, 2022, with Sunday, January 2, 2022, to be considered an official holiday for the public sector as part of the new weekend change implementation.

Official working days and hours in ministries and federal entities have been set as 7.30am to 3.30pm from Monday to Thursday, 7.30am to 12 noon on Fridays.

Government staff will have the flexibility to make arrangements to work from home on Fridays, as well as to arrange their working hours on a flexi-time basis. Friday prayers and sermons will now start from 1.15pm.

Approved holidays falling on Thursdays or Fridays will be reviewed and re-approved according to the new working week.

The weekend was previously Friday and Saturday. This change brings the UAE more into line with global markets and will boost business continuity, bringing the UAE’s financial sector into closer alignment with global real-time trading and communications-based transactions.

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