The number of working hours in Arab and Islamic countries differs from the rest of the year during the holy month of Ramadan. Following the start of the holy month, the government and private sectors reduce working hours. All shopping destinations and entertainment facilities are also changing working hours to suit the schedule of fasting people and the nature of life in this holy month.
Gulf Cooperation Council countries
Saudi
In Saudi Arabia, for example, working hours were reduced annually during the holy month, in order to ease the burden of fasting. For this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in the Kingdom decided to reduce the number of government Ramadan working hours in accordance with the amendments to the Saudi Labor Law.
Working hours in the private sector are from Sunday to Thursday as follows:
For Muslim workers: six daily working hours, or 36 hours per week.
As for non-Muslim workers: it remains 8 hours a day, which is equivalent to 48 hours a week.
Working hours in the government sector are as follows:
The working hours are five from Sunday to Thursday, and it starts from ten in the morning until three o’clock pm. The fingerprint system will stop working, and employees in government agencies will be divided into three groups.
The Saudi Labor Law provides for an increase in wages in the event of having to work extra hours after work. The increase is 25 percent of the basic salary during the day. If these added hours are performed at night, they are calculated as an increase of 50 percent of the basic salary.
As for the working hours in banks during the month of Ramadan, the work is divided into two periods: a morning period and an evening period, taking into account the dates of fasting.
UAE
In the UAE, the working hours of employees in ministries and federal agencies have been set during the holy month of Ramadan, starting from Monday to Thursday from 09:00 in the morning until 02:30 in the afternoon, while the working hours on Friday start from 09:00 in the morning until 12:00 noon, except for those whose nature of work requires otherwise.
As for the working hours of the private sector, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation announced a reduction in normal working hours by two hours per day.
Bahrain
In Bahrain, the Civil Service Authority has set official working hours from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon for employees working according to the system of normal working hours.
It is also reduced by the same percentage for employees working according to the extended working hours from 8 am to 2:45 pm, from Sunday to Wednesday, and on Thursday from 8 am to 2:30 pm,” according to the Bahrain News Agency (BNA).
The special working hours approved by the Civil Service Authority for some government agencies are also reduced by the same percentage, and the competent authority in these agencies determines the start and end times of working hours.
Kuwait
In Kuwait, the Civil Service Bureau has set working hours for 22 governmental and private entities, so that the official working hours will be at 9:30 am until the working hours will end at 2 pm, provided that the work timing for the rest of the entities starts at 10:00 am until 2:30 in the afternoon.
Oman
As for the Sultanate of Oman, it was decided that the official working hours for employees in units of the state’s administrative apparatus and other legal persons will be from 9 am until 2 pm, and the working hours of Muslim workers in private sector establishments have been reduced to 6 hours per day at a rate of 30 hours per week.
