MANY people recently expressed their outrage over a photo showing housemaids who work on an hourly basis standing inside a mall behind the employees of a recruitment company who were offering them for hire. The week before, India's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs visited the Kingdom to discuss the issue of Indian employees who had lost their jobs. Incidents like these are very common and labor office employees habitually deal with such cases. However, they do not care about them very much because of the frequency of their occurrence. In fact, labor offices cannot handle the large number of complaints received on a daily basis. A labor case usually takes up to one year before a final judgment is reached. During this time, the complainant (the Saudi or expatriate worker) is unable to work for another employer while his employer is at liberty to replace him. With oil prices down, it seems that more people will be fired or laid off in the near future. Only then will the Ministry of Labor and Social Development discover that all incentives and amendments to laws in favor of employers will backfire. When oil prices were high, job opportunities were aplenty. In light of the current economic situation, the ministry is going to face many challenges on all levels. It should, therefore, start pressuring employers to create job opportunities for Saudis and protect employees. The latest amendments to the articles of the Labor Law favor employers over employees, particularly Article 77, which allows companies to terminate an employee's contract if his services are no longer needed. This article, as some people claim, was included because employers, during their discussions with the ministry, insisted on it and promised that in turn they would support Saudization. Things seem to be working in the interests of employers these days because they can fire employees as they wish. There was no one representing employees during those negotiations. We should admit that the bitter truth is that the ministry is not qualified to protect the rights and interests of employees. We, therefore, need a labor committee to protect those rights and interests.
