UAE: How many breaks can employees take during work hours?
A worker in the UAE is entitled to breaks between working hours (should it be needed in segments) not less than one hour collectively.
Furthermore, no employee may work for more than five (5) consecutive hours without breaks in a day. According to Article 18 Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations (the "Employment Law"), stipulating: "The worker shall not work more than five (5) consecutive hours without one or more breaks which together shall not exceed one hour, except that such break(s) shall not be taken as part of the working time.
Time off and vacations in the Establishment shall be established based on the schedule or categories according to their nature – for example, in place positions – and according to the manpower category determined by the Executive Regulations of this Decree-Law."
Also, no worker in the UAE should work more than 8 hours per day or 48 hours per week. This is according to Article 17(1) of the Employment Law: "The normal maximum hours of work of employees are (8) eight hours a day or (48) forty-eight hours per week".
And if the employer requires you to work over eight hours without any overtime pay, you might be fired.
That is according to Article 14(1) of the Employment Law: "An employer may not make any device susceptible of making or forcing the employee, or threatened with any punishment, to work for him, or to perform a work or perform a service without his consent.
The following is based on the law mentioned above, you as an employee may not work for longer than 5 hours in a row without any breaks and in total you have 1 hour of breaks every working day.
In addition, your employer cannot ask its workers to work more than 48 hours in a week without overtime as this will be in contravention of provisions under the Employment Law.
Thus you can tell your boss that only eight hours a day or 48 hours a week is all you are supposed to work and that you can have an hour off during working hours probable divided into two or three breaks so it will not interfere with your productivity too. If your employer disagrees with you, you could always make an employment complaint to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.
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