The United Arab Emirates have decided to shorten their weekend from Friday-Saturday to Saturday-Sunday and introduce a four-and-a-half-day work week, in particular for the sake of competitiveness, the news agency reported on Tuesday. official WAM.
The decision of the federation, one of the richest and most influential countries in the Gulf, was taken for economic reasons.
“From an economic point of view, the new working week will allow the United Arab Emirates to better align with international markets,” says WAM.
“This will ensure fluidity in financial, commercial and economic transactions with the countries following the Saturday-Sunday weekend, strengthening […] the opportunities for thousands of international companies based in the Emirates ”, she added, specifying that this will allow“ to increase the performances in terms of competitiveness ”of the country.
” Balance “
The agency further explained that the extended weekend was “part of the UAE government’s efforts to improve work-life balance and well-being in society.”
The new working week will be compulsory for the public sector from January. The weekend will then begin at noon on Friday, with the weekly big prayer starting after 1:00 p.m., and ending on Sunday evening.
Scott Livermore, chief economist at Oxford Economics Middle East, a UK analytical center, believes the private sector, which is free to choose their work week, should follow the public sector.
“Alignment with Europe and Asia will help internationally oriented activities, which are an important sector of the economy, and could attract investment,” he told AFP.
“However, a shorter work week presents challenges in terms of managing production costs, even though a shorter work week has been shown to improve productivity.”
According to the WAM agency, the United Arab Emirates are “the first country in the world to introduce a work week shorter than the five days”, in force elsewhere.
“Happy with the change”
The federation will also become the only Gulf country with a Saturday-Sunday weekend, giving it a head start internationally compared to its regional competitors like Saudi Arabia.
The announcement of this new weekend, which has been talked about for years, comes a week after the federation’s 50th anniversary in 1971, following the departure of British troops from the region.
The Emirates had a Thursday-Friday weekend until 2006, when they changed to Friday-Saturday.
The move comes just over a year after a standardization agreement with Israel resulted in the signing of a series of agreements ranging from tourism to aviation to financial services.
It was generally well received on social media, where WAM’s tweets were widely shared.
“Even though I had gotten used to the Friday-Saturday weekend all these years, I’m happy with the change,” one Twitter user said.
“Great decision from the Emirates. […] The weekend now coincides with the rest of the world, ”wrote another.
Manoj, who works in the tech industry in Dubai, welcomed the Emirati decision. “It’s a great initiative, because when you work with clients abroad, it’s always a problem because we don’t work on Fridays and they don’t work on Sundays. “
Monica, who occupies a position in finance, agrees: “it’s good from an international point of view, because we are in phase with the rest of the world. “
As for the extra half-day of rest, “that’s good, because it will give us more time with the family”, according to her.