{"id":24451,"date":"2025-01-02T13:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T13:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/?p=24451"},"modified":"2025-12-22T05:28:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T05:28:45","slug":"uae-public-holidays-law-full-explanation-of-what-the-new-rules-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/uae-public-holidays-law-full-explanation-of-what-the-new-rules-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE Public Holidays Law: Full Explanation of What the New Rules Mean"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of January 1, 2025, a change to the UAE\u2019s public holiday law<\/strong> could bring more flexibility and extra days off for residents. The update allows certain public holidays that fall on weekends to be shifted to the start or end of the workweek, ensuring that employees can fully enjoy their time off.<\/p>\n

Public holidays in the UAE are often tied to the Islamic Hijri calendar, meaning dates can shift annually. In past years, if a holiday landed on a weekend, many workers missed out on additional rest days. For instance, in 2024, Islamic New Year fell on Sunday, July 7 \u2014 already a weekend day for most people \u2014 resulting in no noticeable benefit for private sector employees.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Under the revised law, holidays like Islamic New Year, the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s birthday (PBUH), and UAE National Day will be rescheduled if they coincide with a weekend<\/strong>. However, this flexibility doesn\u2019t extend to Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha, which remain fixed regardless of their placement in the week.<\/p>\n

This year, UAE residents are set to enjoy at least 12 public holidays<\/strong>, with an additional day depending on the length of Ramadan (29 or 30 days). Thanks to the new policy, holidays that might have otherwise been overlooked due to weekend overlap can now be moved, making 2025 a promising year for extra downtime.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The UAE constitution now permits the Cabinet to reschedule holidays, as stated in the revised law:
\n“With the exception of Eid holidays, the Cabinet may \u2014 pursuant to a resolution it issues \u2014 transfer any of the public holidays referred to in Article (1) of this Resolution to the beginning or end of the week.”<\/em><\/strong>
\nThis rule applies to most national holidays unless they overlap with another public holiday or are already on a weekend.<\/p>\n

Individual emirates also have the freedom to add additional holidays as they see fit<\/strong>, giving them the ability to create unique celebratory days. For example, Dubai could choose to introduce its own holiday in the future.<\/p>\n

Since 2022, the official weekend in the UAE has been Saturday and Sunday, aligning with global standards and further enhancing the practicality of this new public holiday policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of January 1, 2025, a change to the UAE\u2019s public holiday law could bring more flexibility and extra days off for residents. The update allows certain public holidays that fall on weekends to be shifted to the start or end of the workweek, ensuring that employees can fully enjoy their time off. Public holidays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":21609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"tags":[],"countries":[],"cities":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumlist.ceo\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}