Dubai: A number of female employees at Emirates Post offices say they are being discriminated against by management because they have to work longer hours and have only one-day weekends.
The female employees reacted after management issued a directive which extended their working hours by one hour per day to seven hours.
"We used to work from 8am until 2pm, and we have only Friday off as our weekend.
"They also reduced our annual leave from 35 to 30 days," said one female employee.
Employees who work at the counters received only 30 per cent increases in their salaries, whereas administrative staff received 55 per cent, she said.
One employee, an Emirati, said counter staff work six days a week and administrative staff only five days a week.
A spokesman for Emirates Post said counter staff work according to a shift system, and increasing the working hours to seven hours per day is not excessive.
Administrative staff also had their working hours increased. They now work eight hours per day, one hour more than counter staff, and therefore get two days off for the weekend, he said.