Citigroup UAE is shifting to a Saturday-Sunday weekend from the New Year in the UAE, as per an internal memo witnessed by Reuters, emerging as the most recent multinational bank in the Arab sphere to shift its workweek schedule.
Citigroup UAE to shift to a Saturday-Sunday weekend
Citigroup UAE will transfer its corporate offices in the nation to a Monday to Friday full working day schedule, with a two-hour static break time on Friday afternoon, the memo stated, with employees to be necessitated to reappear to work post the fixed break period.
Citigroup UAE’s verdict arrives as other international banks in the country are transforming into a Monday-Friday workweek from 2022 in place of the prevalent Sunday-Thursday – as is vastly witnessed around the Middle East.
Reuters had testified on 19th December 2021 (Sunday) of Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Societe Generale SA’s transfer to shift to a Saturday-Sunday weekend in the UAE from 2022.
However, the Citigroup UAE branches will be functional on Monday through Saturday and persist to remain closed on Sunday, according to the internal memo. Its branches will function from 0730 hours through 1230 hours local time on Fridays and 0800 hours to 1400 hours on the remaining working days.
The Wall Street bank’s UAE division, which greeted the new-fangled work schedule reformations by the government in the nation, stated its move to be best adapted to the renewed structure and to have adhered to the nation’s central bank’s opening hours requirement, the memo added.
The UAE had started on December 7th that it would swing to a found-and-a-half day week with a Saturday-Sunday weekend from the commencement of 2022. Private firms were, however, permitted to indicate their working week.
Over the past year, the UAE has engaged with several measures to transform its economy to attract foreign investment and talent amongst the maturing economic competition with Saudi Arabia.