What are weekend days in Saudi Arabia?

A Royal Decree issued in June 2013 by King Abdullah (late) changed the historic weekend days in Saudi Arabia from Thursday, Friday to Friday and Saturday. However, it is not applicable to all!.

The decision was taken to align the weekend in Saudi Arabia with the international weekend i.e. Saturday and Sunday.

Now a question arises, are all workers in Saudi Arabia enjoying the weekly holiday of 2 days?

What are weekend days in Saudi Arabia?

Weekend in the Government Sector

The weekend days for the government sector employees in Saudi Arabia are Friday and Saturday except for the following sectors;

  • Health Sector.
  • Armed forces including the police.
  • Subcontracted Employees.

The employees in these sectors enjoy a two-day weekend according to the schedule given to them by their respective ministries.

Weekend in the Banking Sector

  • The weekend in the banking sector is Friday and Saturday.
  • The Holidays in this sector are announced by SAMA.

Weekend in the Private Sector

Saudi Labor Law requires only ONE weekly off day for employees and therefore, most of the employees working at small-sized companies and establishments enjoy only one day weekend in Saudi Arabia i.e. Friday.

However, generally, employees working in medium and large-sized companies enjoy two-day weekends i.e. Friday and Saturday.

Source: Arab News

For the latest updates, you can join our WhatsApp group or Telegram Channel.

Never pay the full price, join the Saudi Coupon Codes group and get sales updates and discount codes in one place.