Dubai strikes a work-life balance for its employees
▶ Changes in Dubai to public sector working hours and home schooling after the summer could further ease road congestion
A decision to give Dubai government employees flexible working hours could make morning traffic jams a thing of the past, transport experts said.
From next Sunday public sector workers will have the option to begin work at any time between 6.30am and 8.30am.
The decision could reduce accidents on the city’s roads, caused by frustrated drivers rushing to make it to the office on time, said Thomas Edelmann, founder of campaign group Road Safety UAE.
“It is an important step in reducing the morning gridlocks as much as possible,” he said.
“There are a number of benefits to this, including the reduction of dangerous behaviour from motorists.
“It will save companies time and money as well, if staff members are not late for work because they have been stuck in long traffic jams.”
Dubai’s private school regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, recently said parents would be able to choose between continuing to have their children taught at home or sending them back into classrooms when the new school year starts.
Mr Edelmann said this would also have a positive effect on reducing the level of morning traffic and improving pupil safety. The number of road deaths has dropped sharply over the past decade, but last year in the UAE, on average, eight people died every week.
“One of the few positives that have came out of Covid-19 is that companies have reconsidered how they do business,” he said. “The pandemic has fostered substantial changes that won’t go away.”
Mr Edelmann said remote working led to an increase in productivity in many sectors.
“People are saving a significant amount of time by not having to travel so much, especially to and from the office,” he said.
“People are working so much more efficiently because they are spending less time on the commute and having to travel to meetings.”
A study last year by the World Economic Forum said that offering flexible working hours was a much simpler way to reduce traffic congestion than traditional methods such as building more roads.
The study said that technology meant it was no longer essential to travel to a fixed point for work.
It also said that for most professions, laptops, high-speed internet and cloud access were now more essential than having access to transport.
The flexible working model has already been adopted by countries around the globe.
Finland’s Working Hours Act came into force in January. Under the new law the majority of the country’s full-time employees are given the right to choose where and when they will work for at least half of their contracted working hours.
Another road safety expert said that flexible working hours had for more than 15 years been discussed as a method to reduce traffic congestion in the UAE. However, it was not until safety measures were put in place to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic that many companies began to allow their staff to work remotely, said Saleh Jafar, president of the Gulf for Yasa road safety group.
“We’ve already seen a 20 per cent to 30 per cent drop in the level of traffic in Dubai since people started to work from home more,” he said.
“Road safety is not the only area that has benefited because there are huge advantages for the environment when there are fewer cars on the road.”
Mr Jafar said the onus was now on the private sector to follow the example set by the Dubai government and make flexible working hours official policy.
“We need to look at the number of buses and trucks owned by private companies in Dubai,” he said.
“Buses transporting labourers are still being involved in a significant proportion of accidents so there is a need to review the timings of when they are on the roads.”
Expert says onus is on private sector to follow Dubai government and make flexible working official policy