UAE: Emirates to Pay Employees 24-Week Salary Bonus
Emirates Airlines reported a record $2.9 billion profit for the past financial year. The airline is recognizing this by rewarding employees in a pretty unprecedented way. Emirates has historically offered profit sharing to employees when the airline has a good year. However, there’s no consistent formula to this, and it’s at the discretion of the company’s executives. With the airline having done so well in the past financial year, employees are being rewarded exceptionally.
The Dubai-based airline has announced that all employees of the company will be getting a bonus equal to 24 weeks’ worth of salary. Yes, that means all Emirates employees will be getting nearly a 50% bonus on their salaries.
Historically when Emirates has performed well, the airline has offered employees bonuses equal to several weeks’ worth of salary. For example, for the 2017-2018 financial year, the airline offered employees bonuses equal to five weeks’ worth of pay. Meanwhile, in 2018-2019, profits decreased by 69%, and employees didn’t get any bonuses. As you’d expect, there also wasn’t much profit sharing during the pandemic.
Gulf carriers are often vilified for their employment practices. While I think some criticisms are warranted, Emirates usually does a pretty job taking care of employees, and this is a clear reflection of that. Even without a union or collective bargaining agreement, it’s possible for a company to be generous with staff.
So many Emirates employees live in Dubai, while their families are back home in the country they’re originally from. Often the Emirates staff are breadwinners for their whole family, so getting this kind of bonus will make a material difference in their lives.
Emirates reported a record profit of $2.9 billion, and the airline is celebrating that by offering employees profit sharing that’s equal to 24 weeks of salary. After a rough few years for the industry, this is a nice reward for a lot of hard-working employees.
