A New Official Workday
The General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic issued a decision on Monday, 2 November 2026, extending official working hours at the country's administrative public bodies. Offices will open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., replacing a workday that previously ended at 3 p.m.
The change takes effect on 1 December 2026. Friday and Saturday remain the weekly rest days, leaving the structure of the week unchanged while adding one hour to each working day.
Who Is Covered
The decision applies to administrative public bodies. Economic public bodies and institutions whose work requires continuous operation keep their own start and end times and shift arrangements, in line with their own regulations and the public interest.
The measure rests on the Basic Law for State Employees No. 50 of 2004 and its amendments, Decree No. 98 of 2026, and letters from the ministries of administrative development and finance. Any conflicting provisions were repealed, and the order was circulated to the relevant bodies for implementation.
Thinner Pay by the Hour
For public employees, the added hour lands on wages that are already thin. One worker described a monthly salary of 25,000 new Syrian pounds (SYP), while some colleagues earn closer to 12,000.
Spread across a longer day, each hour of work is worth less. Measured over 22 working days a month, the hourly value of a 25,000-pound salary falls from about 162 pounds to about 142. At unchanged salaries, moving from a seven-hour to an eight-hour day lowers the effective value of an hour by about 12.5 percent, a shift several employees said they fear will stretch household budgets and the second jobs they rely on.
Legal Limits and Open Questions
The same Basic Law caps actual work at eight hours a day and 48 hours a week, with exceptions permitted by a decision of the Council of Ministers, and guarantees at least one paid weekly rest day. One state telecommunications company had already pushed its closing time to 4 p.m. about six weeks before the decree.
An economics professor questioned whether longer hours would raise output, arguing that productivity depends on administrative reform rather than time spent at a desk. The debate echoes international research on working hours and the balance between work and life.