Dubai-based Danube Group confirms shift to new weekend structure

Dubai-headquartered Danube Group has become one of the first private companies in the country to confirm that it will change its working days to align with that of the government.

The building material, real estate and retail home furnishing conglomerate intends to retain its two-day weekend (on Saturdays and Sundays) rather than have a two-and-a-half one starting Friday afternoon.

The organisation’s workforce of 4,000 employees will be provided a two-hour break on Fridays for prayers.

The UAE head office will follow a Monday to Friday work week, with weekends moved to Saturday and Sunday.

Danube added that the rest of their retail outlets and building material outlets will operate according to the markets.

“Moving our work week from Monday to Friday is extremely beneficial for us as we need to be at par with our global counterparts,” said Danube Group chairman and founder, Rizwan Sajan.

“The UAE government should be applauded for this move as their vision and strategy is to enhance UAE’S economic competitiveness, enhance well-being and boost work life balance. We as an organisation will support this decision and make it work towards our favour.

“We have branches across 20 countries and this new work week will help us be aligned and allow smoother financial, economic and trade transactions.”

Federal government employees in the country will, starting January 1, 2022, have a four-and-a-half-day working week. The new working week for them will run from Monday until Thursday, 7.30am to 3.30pm, and on Friday from 7.30am to 12pm.

Read: UAE switches weekend, announces four-and-a-half-day working week

Private sector companies in the UAE can decide whether or not they want to adopt the new weekend policy announced by the country for government employees, but have been urged to do so.

Read: New UAE weekend: Private sector companies can decide whether to make a change