RIYADH – The Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MLSD) has given the go-ahead for a new service via the "Ajeer" Program, which will allow temporary lending of workers between health facilities in the private sector. The process will be carried out via the Ajeer Program e-portal that aims to organize and facilitate access to the manpower available in the Kingdom. This brings the total number of sectors subject to this system to four. They include building and construction, agriculture, pharmacology, and now health, a Saudi Press Agency (SPA) report said The Ministry of Labor reaffirms that lending workers between sectors covered by Ajeer Program is carried out electronically through Ajeer, stressing that this will be subject to the conditions approved earlier. They include that the two firms should be practicing the same activity, the firm borrowing the worker ought to be in the Middle Green Zone and above, the lending period should not exceed 12 months in two years, and workers lent to other firms should not exceed 20 percent of the expatriate workers in the firm. Furthermore, the MLSD has stressed that the health facilities must comply with the minimum number of workers, according to the conditions set by the Ministry of Health. Hence, this makes it incumbent on the firm to obtain licenses for practicing the profession from the Ministry of Health for all the workers it lends to other firms. The MLSD has called upon firms wishing to avail of this service to enter the Ajeer Program website or via the link https://www.ajeer.com.sa/. Ajeer Program also enables firms to lend the services of their excess workers temporarily, provided all these transactions are in line with the regulations and bylaws of the MLSD. The aim is to save time and effort in accessing the required manpower so that they are ready for work in a faster and easier way. In addition, this will enable the firms to rotate the expertise and experience within the Saudi labor market and ensure protection from violation of labor regulations. The MLSD launched the Ajeer Program in 2014 to contribute to organizing and facilitating access to manpower. The program aims to benefit from the manpower available inside the Kingdom instead of recruiting them from abroad. This will enable covering the needs of the labor market, and raise productivity and workers' efficiency.
