Towards the week of four (and a half) working days “to make us more attractive to global markets, to better reconcile life and work”.
The transition is coming from January 1, 2022: the working week in the UAE will become four and a half days, with Saturdays, Sundays and half-day of Friday as public holidays.
This is a turning point with respect to the traditional observance of the rest on Friday followed by Saturday, which is in force in many Islamic countries.
The purpose of this new rule is that the UAE, a very important economic hub in the region, can better adapt to global markets.
The weekend will therefore begin on Friday at 12, “in an attempt to better reconcile work-life balance”.
It is not the first move that the federation of the seven Emirates takes to make itself even more attractive to foreign investments.
The government announced in a statement that the weekend change “will ensure economic, commercial and financial transactions with countries that have a western weekend, and will increase business opportunities for thousands of UAE companies.”
Source: Corriere della Sera