From January 1st 2022, the UAE government and federal entities will be adapting to a new four and a half day working week.
This new move for federal government entities comes with new working hours and days. Currently, the working week is Sunday – Thursday, but under the new regulations, the working week consist of Monday-Thursday with hours 7:30am-3:30pm and Friday working hours being 7:30am-12:00pm.
With this move, Friday prayers across the UAE will now be held from 1:15pm onwards, and government staff will have the option to work from home on Fridays, and arrange their hours on a flexi-time basis. This new move will make the UAE the first country in the world to introduce a 4.5 day working week and the extended weekend comes as part of the UAE government’s plans to implement a healthy work-life balance and an enhanced quality of life.
The new working week, and flexible hours, will help to enable the emirates to adapt quickly to any emerging changes whilst also making the workplace a healthy eco-system.
Economically speaking, this new change will allow the UAE to align with global markets and ensure smoother financial, trade and economic transactions with the rest of the world who have a Monday-Friday working week.
The news of this new week has been praised and has had a positive response; it is yet to be confirmed when the private sector will be following suite.
