RIYADH — The General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) has introduced a new mechanism under which Saudi employees shall be included in the firm's Nitaqat Saudization program only with their knowledge and signature in the electronic contract. This is to avoid exploitation of their names in the establishments' Nitaqat program without their prior knowledge and approval. GOSI has codified the new mechanism with an update in its recently approved electronic systems. According to the mechanism, when a company or establishment wants to hire a Saudi citizen, it is required that the Saudi would accept the contract sent to him by the firm within seven days to be counted in the Nitaqat program, or the contract will be rejected automatically. Previously, GOSI allowed calculating the Saudi employee in Nitaqat without any approval of the contract by the Saudi employee. In the event that the Saudi employee agrees to the electronic contract, he will receive a message stating that he is registered in the social insurance system. The employee's wage and insurance subscription number will be mentioned in the message. At the same time, the employer will receive a message stating that the employee's registration has been approved. As for the non-Saudi employee, his data shall be sent from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development to GOSI after transferring his sponsorship or his entry in the Kingdom. Then a message will be sent to the employer from GOSI stating that he has a non-Saudi subscriber who needs to update his information. GOSI recently started giving exemption of payment of 50 percent of the fines imposed on firms for the delay in payment of subscription fee. This exemption will be given only once.
