Nadir Al-Enaizi and Huda al-Yusuf Okaz./Saudi Gazette TABUK – Male expat tailors will no longer be recruited to work at women's dress making workshops as part of the Ministry of Labor's drive for feminization of women's apparel and accessory stores, Director of the ministry's Information and Human Resources Development Center Tayseer Al-Farraj said here on Sunday. A royal approval was issued to the ministry proposal for the feminization and Saudization of women's dress making workshops. The Labor Ministry also informed the ministries of commerce and municipal and rural affairs to intimate the citizens interested in obtaining licenses for tailoring shops for women that they will not get visas to recruit male tailors. The ministry inspected tailoring shops in various regions of the Kingdom to rid them of male expat tailors who were self-employed or working for Saudis in violation of labor and residency laws. The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) has established a higher institute to train Saudi women in specialization needed in women's dress making shops. The Ministry of Labor started last year an intensive inspection on shops selling women's accessories to check whether they were complying with the ministry's decision to employ Saudi female staff after the deadline to do so expired. The inspection campaign came in the second phase to feminizing shops selling women's dresses, abayas and accessories. It is complimentary to the first stage of feminizing lingerie shops, and its implementation is compulsory as it is considered to be a national program aimed at employing as many Saudi women as possible. Prior to enforcing the decision, the ministry conducted several workshops and meetings with businessmen over the last two months to make them aware of how to implement this directive. The ministry officials also briefed them on the measures taken to qualify Saudi women to take up these jobs by providing them intensive training.
