UAE: What happens when your weekend is a statutory holiday?

But since the first day of the year falls on a Sunday, which is a weekly day off for many workers, are they entitled to an extra day off?

No, according to legal experts who spoke to Gulf News.

Under such circumstances, companies are not legally obliged to give employees an extra day off, said Imran Khan, a Dubai-based legal adviser.

“Employers and employees can come to an agreement on a day of solitary leave through mutual understanding, but there is no specific mention of this in the UAE labor law,” Khan said.

Priyasha Corrie, partner at Keystone Law Middle East LLP, talks about how this is in line with UAE labor law regarding public holidays during workers’ annual leave.

“According to Article 29 of the new UAE Labor Law, an employee is entitled to 30 days of annual leave. If a public holiday falls on his annual leave days, the public holiday will be counted towards the employee’s annual leave. Therefore, the employee does not have any additional Holiday,” Corey told Gulf News.

“On the other hand, if an employee has to work on any statutory holiday, then the employer must compensate him or her for another holiday or pay the employee that day’s salary plus not less than 50% of the basic salary for that day,” she added.

“Similarly, under the new UAE labor law, employees are entitled to one day off per week, which can be any day of the week, not necessarily Friday, Saturday or Sunday. If a public holiday falls on the employee’s weekly rest day, Then that employee would not get the extra day off,” Corrie said.