UAE shrinks work week and shifts weekend

0
60

The United Arab Emirates is slashing its official working week to four-and-a-half days and shifting its weekend to Saturday and Sunday in a serious shift geared toward bettering competitiveness, officers mentioned just lately.

The “nationwide working week” is necessary for presidency our bodies from Jan 1 and bucks the regional norm of a full break day on Friday for Muslim prayers.

While changing into the one Gulf nation to not have a Friday-Saturday weekend, the resource-rich and bold UAE now comes into line with the non-Arab world.

Under the brand new timetable, the public-sector weekend begins at midday on Fridays and ends on Sunday. Friday prayers at mosques will probably be held after 1:15pm all yr spherical.

The transfer is meant to “higher align the UAE with world markets”, mentioned state information company WAM, calling the brand new working week the shortest on the earth.

“The UAE is the primary nation on the earth to introduce a nationwide working week shorter than the worldwide five-day week,” WAM mentioned.

The Western-style weekend, rumoured for years, was introduced lower than a week after the previous British protectorate celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its formation.

The UAE noticed a Thursday-Friday weekend till 2006, when it moved to Fridays and Saturdays, with the non-public sector following go well with.

“The prolonged weekend comes as a part of the UAE authorities’s efforts to spice up work-life stability and improve social wellbeing, whereas growing efficiency to advance the UAE’s financial competitiveness,” the WAM report mentioned.

“From an financial perspective, the brand new working week will higher align the UAE with world markets, reflecting the nation’s strategic standing on the worldwide financial map,” it added.

“It will guarantee clean monetary, commerce and financial transactions with international locations that comply with a Saturday/Sunday weekend, facilitating stronger worldwide enterprise hyperlinks and alternatives for hundreds of UAE-based and multinational firms.”

Great choice

The new association is one other daring step for the UAE, which final yr broke with many years of Arab consensus by normalising relations with Israel, unlocking lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in commerce.

It was typically welcomed on social media, the place the topic was trending and the official WAM tweets have been extensively retweeted.

“Although I’ve gotten used to the Friday-Saturday weekend in spite of everything these years, I’m completely happy to see this transformation,” mentioned one Twitter consumer.

“Great choice by UAE. It serves multiple purpose. Weekend now matches remainder of the world,” tweeted one other.

Scott Livermore, chief economist at Oxford Economics Middle East, mentioned companies might select their working week however have been more likely to align with the general public sector.

“Aligning with Europe and Asia will assist internationally oriented enterprise which might be an necessary pillar of the financial system and might entice funding,” he instructed AFP.

“However, a shorter working week does current some challenges when it comes to managing output prices, though there’s some proof {that a} shorter working week can increase productiveness of the workforce.” – AFP Relaxnews



Source link