AL-KHOBAR – Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh said that more than 250,000 Saudis have benefited from the seven-month amnesty period that ended on Nov. 4. “The ministry will publish in the near future all the figures regarding their placements in each sector and region, in addition to the outcome of the status correction campaign,” he told the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) after inaugurating the Third Social Dialogue Forum here on Wednesday afternoon.
Fakieh thanked Minister of Interior Prince Muhammad Bin Naif and other ministry officials for their support to make his ministry's drive to regulate the local employment market a great success. The minister said the first forum focused on ‘working time and period of work hours' while ‘the policies and structures of wages in the private sector' figured in the second forum. “Here, in the third annual forum, we discuss another major topic – challenges in women's employment and the proposed solutions. The ministry will continue presenting and setting the ground for in-depth discussion of such topics with the participation of all the three parties involved so as to reach a common ground in serving the nation and citizens in a balanced, just and sustained way,” he said. The two-day event is discussing three major sub-topics: Safe and suitable work environment for woman, rights of working women, family related clauses of the Labor Law including work hours and maternity leave, and policies proposed to create new areas of jobs for women. It will also review a number of studies pertaining to woman's work, as well as success stories of women in the private sector. The forum would come out with concrete proposals and recommendations aimed at improving the working conditions for Saudi women employees and job seekers in a way increasing the competitiveness and performance of the market, in addition to protecting their rights and privileges. Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Ahmed Al-Laheedan, spokesman of the General Directorate of Passports, said that a total of 118,138 illegal expatriates have been deported during the period from the beginning of the security crackdown on Nov. 4 until Dec. 2. A number of illegals have been brought back from the last point of deportation after it was found through finger-printing that they were wanted for committing various crimes.
