Current talk in the UAE around the HR community is the new four and a half day week announced by the Government applicable to the public sector (with the exception of Sharjah that has announced a four day week). It is clear the UAE is striving towards a new approach to HR where employee happiness and productivity is key to creating an attractive workplace destination. It is likely the private sector will follow suit with changes to the working week and we expect private companies to align their working week with the public sector (with adjustments to address commercial requirements) from January 2022.
In addition to the changes to the working week, the Government also announced a new framework of labour laws for the private sector under the Federal Decree - Law No.33 of 2021 (the "New Law"), coming into effect on 2 February 2022.
The New Law repeals the previous law (Federal Law No. 8 of 1980) in its entirety. The New Law is not exhaustive. Indeed many important aspects of the New Law require clarification and detail in the form of Implementing Regulations to be announced in the short to medium term. This may lead to some uncertainty as to the application of the New Law.
Employers will note that there are some important changes to keep in mind. We provide a short summary below.
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