UAE to change its official weekend to Saturday-Sunday

Dubai : The UAE has announced that from January 1, 2022, they will make a transition to 4.5 day working week, with Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday forming the new weekend.

"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 UAE will become the only Gulf country with a Saturday-Sunday weekend, a move that brings it into line with most of the non-Arab world.

The working week will start on Monday and end by Friday afternoon. The working hours for federal employees are set to be from 7.30am to 3.30pm, with 8.5 working hours per day. On Friday, employees will work for 4.5 hours.

"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."

On Fridays, the employees will be allowed to opt for work from home weekday. The announcement also said that Friday sermons and prayers would be held after 1.15pm across the UAE all year long.