UAE mulls moving weekend to Saturdays, Sundays, activists say

Emirati activists yesterday reported that the United Arab Emirates might switch the country’s national weekend to Saturdays and Sundays instead of Fridays and Saturdays.

The UAE currently operates on the basis that its weekend is Friday and Saturday, in line with most of the Arab world, following a decision by Abu Dhabi in 2006.

“The possibility that work will be on Friday from home and only half a day, and therefore the two good deeds will be combined,” Emirati lawyer and activist, Habib Al-Mulla, said on Twitter, adding: “Change is coming soon.”

“The private sector will be a full day,” Al Mulla wrote in Arabic, explaining that only the public sector would benefit from a shorter work day on Friday.

Al Mulla is regularly consulted to draft and advise on Federal and Emirate-level law in the UAE, according to his biography.

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