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Ramadan work hours ignored
A reader from Dubai asks: The company that I work for has officially declared that we only work seven hours a day during Ramadan, but employees, including Muslims, are still being forced to work full time without any overtime pay. Are there any laws to protect the rights of workers?
As per Article No. 65 of the UAE Labour Law working hours for adults should be a maximum of eight hours per day or 48 hours per week, provided that they can be increased to nine hours per day in cases of those working in commercial outlets, hotels, cafeterias, security jobs and others as might be permitted by the order of the Minister of Labour. This article states, also, that working hours should be decreased by two hours during Ramadan. At the same time, I would like to confirm that the time spent by the employee travelling between his residence to his workplace and vice versa is not included in the working hours fixed above.
On the other hand, Article 67 of the labour law states that if work circumstances necessitate the employee to work over his ordinary working hours, such an excess should be considered as overtime for which the employee should be compensated at the ratio of his rate equal to the ordinary working hours plus an increase of not less than 25 per cent of the same rate. Therefore, I advise that the company, as per the labour law, is obliged to comply with the provisions of the above mentioned articles.
Questions answered by Advocate Mohammad Ebrahim Al Shaiba of Al Bahr Advocates and Legal Consultants
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