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29 March 2024

UAE seeks to narrow gap between private and public sector holidays

Published
By Mohammed El Sadafy

The Ministry of Labour (MoL) is in discussions with private business owners, institutions and chambers of commerce and industry in the UAE to come up with practical solutions to narrow the difference in working hours and holidays between the public and private sectors, an official source at the Ministry said.

The source stressed that these discussions are in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, at the Government Summit held in Dubai.

The conference stressed the need to fast-track changes to the Labour Law in order to narrow the gap between the public and private sector incentives, especially working hours and holidays.

The participants in the conference confirmed that the amendments are part of a plan to make private sector jobs more attractive in order to encourage and enhance the participation of national human resources in the private sector.

The source also added that the significant difference in the total holidays that employees of the public sector receive compared to those working in the private sector is one of the main reasons for the reluctance of citizens to work in the private sector, in addition to the differences in salary.

Even as discussions are ongoing, the Ministry anticipates that finding and implementing a solution will take some time.

He pointed out that this is due to the fact that the passage of the proposal needs to undergo several procedural stages where it should be approved by the Council of Ministers and the Federal National Council before it is presented to His Highness the President of the UAE for his approval.

The MoL estimates that the public sector receives 13 public holidays and 104 weekends off during a year, which amount to a total of 117 days off. However, the private sector gets 10 public holidays and 52 weekends off, amounting to a total of 62 days off. The difference works out to 55 days a year.

It was mentioned that the biggest difference between the holidays is the weekend holiday of Saturday, which is not yet granted by law to private sector employees. The remainder of the difference comes from the the 3-day official holidays for the governmental staff, which are the holiday of Eid al-Fitr (3 days for government workers, and two days for private sector workers), and the holiday of Eid al-Adha (4 days for government workers, and 3 days for private sector workers). In addition, another day of difference is added due to the National Day holiday (two days for government workers, and one day for private sector workers).

However the source pointed out that the problem of the differences in holidays between the government and the private sector does not stop at that, but is extended to include the differences in dates of holidays between members of the same family that have employees working in both the government and private sectors. In addition, the holidays get further differentiated when a holiday falls on Friday, which is the off day for the employees in the private sector.