RIYADH — The Friendly Settlement Department at the Labor Office under the branch of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) in the Riyadh region was able to recover financial dues, amounting to SR66 million, owed to workers in the private sector. Dr. Mohammed Al-Harbi, director general of the ministry's branch, said that the amounts were recovered after settling more than 6,000 labor cases through forging reconciliations between workers and business owners in the settlement sessions that were carried out remotely. The settlement included different types of labor cases such as disputes related to labor contracts, wages, work injuries, and disputes consequent to dismissal from work, and other disputes arising from the application of the Labor Law and its regulations. The Friendly Settlement is an electronic platform for settling labor disputes. It is one of the initiatives of the National Transformation Program that is dedicated to improve working conditions of expatriates. Earlier, the friendly settlement was done manually through the parties to the lawsuit, submission and attendance of sessions in public offices but now the service is fully automated around the clock. It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Justice had unveiled in October 2018 a new mechanism under which labor offices across the Kingdom would have a period of 21 days to amicably settle labor disputes. If no settlement is reached in 21 days, then labor offices should electronically submit the case to labor courts. The ministry had classified labor cases into three categories: Employee and employer dispute, cases concerning domestic workers, and complaints of both employees and employers against the decisions taken by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) pertaining to subscription, registration, and compensation.
