During a workshop organized by the Asharqia Chamber
"Human Resources": The initiative to improve the contractual relationship increases the competitiveness of citizens in the labor market and contributes to attracting talent
A workshop organized by the Asharqia Chamber, represented by the Contracting Committee, in cooperation with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, on "Improving the Contractual Relationship for Private Sector Employees" through remote communication technology, Tuesday, December 8, 2020.
The workshop, which was moderated by a member of the Board of Directors of the Asharqia Chamber and Chairman of the Contracting Committee, Hamad bin Hammoud Al-Hammad, witnessed the participation of the Undersecretary for Inspection and Work Environment Development Sattam bin Amer Al-Harbi, who explained that the initiative to improve the contractual relationship for expatriate workers will start in early March 2021, which includes three services available to a migrant worker: Career mobility, final exit, exit and return
As for the first service - according to Al-Harbi - it is to allow the employment of foreign workers to move between private sector establishments, within specific controls that take into account the rights of the parties to the contractual relationship and the terms of the contract between the employer and the expatriate worker, and three parties benefit from this service (the migrant worker, the current employer, and the owner New work.
H reviewed the cases in which a migrant worker is allowed to move to a new employer without conditions, including the absence of a signed work contract, taking into account the deadline for documenting the contract, which is 3 months from the entry of the worker, non-payment of the worker's wage for three consecutive months, and the absence of the employer in travel, imprisonment, death or any other reason Or the expiry of the expatriate's work permit or residence, and in the event that the worker reports a case of a commercial cover-up against the employer, provided that he is not participating in the same case, and the worker has the right to move if the employer does not comply in the event of a labor dispute to attend the sessions by two consecutive sessions and he stated that the initiative For the expatriate worker to request final exit, or exit and return during the validity of the work contract or after its end, automatically through the Absher platform, according to specific conditions, including: The worker must be part of the expatriate professional employment subject to the labor system, and that the worker has a valid residency and a documented work contract And that he does not have unpaid government fees or violations, and this is accompanied by the approval of this expatriate worker of the procedures resulting from the final exit before completing the contract, or the exit without return during the leave granted to him by the employer, and that. Via the Absher platform.
Al-Harbi mentioned the conditions for benefiting from this service (job mobility) imposed on the worker and the new employer, as for the worker, it is a condition that the worker be part of the expatriate professional employment subject to the work system, and that this worker completes his first year with the current employer from his first entry into The Kingdom, according to a notarized work contract, or he has a job offer submitted through a strong platform by the new employer, and to submit a notification to the current employer of the request to transfer the service, taking into account the notice period
As for the conditions for the new employer's eligibility to request the transfer of the services of a migrant worker - and speaking to Sattam Al-Harbi - it is that his facility is eligible to obtain visas according to the regulations, and has a commitment to the controls of the wage protection program, the controls of the contract documentation and digitization program and the self-evaluation program.
For his part, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development for Labor Policies, Engineer Hani bin Abdul-Mohsen Al-Mujil, emphasized that the wise leadership represented by the Ministry was keen to achieve the public interest, by improving the relationship between the employer on the one hand and the workers on the other hand, and that the ministry has worked and is still working on Harmonizing and updating many legislations and policies and launching programs and initiatives that contribute to achieving and supporting the Kingdom's vision 2030, and on improving the contractual relationship for expatriate workers, the rational government, out of concern for the work environment, issued a system that gives the expatriate rights that are added to the rights he enjoys in operating Saudi institutions All rights are now guaranteed under the system, such as the right to move employment from one institution to another, and achieve final exit, or exit and return, all according to specific requirements that take into account the rights of the worker himself, the current employer, and the new employer.
On the other hand, Deputy Director of the Implementation Department at the National Transformation Program Center, Engineer Safwan bin Hussam Al-Sharif, said that the initiative aims to improve the contractual relationship between the worker and the employer by amending the work regulations and systems to allow job mobility for expatriates and improve the mechanism of final exit and return, which contributes to raising the attractiveness of The labor market, raising its competitiveness, and enhancing its attractiveness for highly skilled expatriate workers.
Al-Sharif indicated that the initiative contributes to improving working conditions for expatriates by raising the satisfaction of expatriates, preserving the rights of workers, increasing the productivity of expatriates in the labor market, and increasing the Kingdom's competitiveness to attract global talent.
Regarding the challenges, Al-Sharif said that several challenges facing the initiative are: The lack of commitment of business owners to the rights of expatriate workers, which negatively affects the attractiveness of the labor market, and it will be solved through the development of regulations and amended regulations to guarantee the rights of expatriates, and reduce the gap in the competitiveness of the expatriate compared to the citizen. By activating the basic services of the initiative, which will contribute to increasing the productivity of expatriates in the labor market.
Regarding the expected impact of the initiative, Al-Sharif pointed to several positive results, the most prominent of which are: improving the working conditions of expatriates, raising the level of transferring the skills of expatriates, which improves the level of productivity and increases the efficiency of the expatriate labor market, and reduces the disparity between the benefits of Saudi and expatriate workers, which will be reflected in the improvement of the nationalization rate, and the improvement of the arrangement The Kingdom at the international level in the indicators related to the working conditions of expatriates, pointing to correcting the conditions of nearly half a million expatriates on the land of the Kingdom to attract qualified workers with added value.
Al-Hammad pointed out that the initiative to improve the contractual relationship comes as one of the important paths within several paths pursued by our rational government to reach a competitive labor market for global labor markets, which raises its classification in international competitiveness indicators, as it is a qualitative initiative that keeps pace with the state of development in global labor markets on the part of And the stage of economic transformation that the country is going through on the other hand, and he said: I can say that this initiative reflects the actual attention paid by our rational government to reach the global labor market to achieve the ambitious goals of creating a prosperous economy capable of positively dealing with future developments.
