JEDDAH — Expatiate domestic workers such as housemaids and drivers will be covered soon by the national wage protection program after the higher authorities gave their approval to extend the scheme's coverage, Al-Hayat daily reported.
During the Second Human Resources Forum on Sunday, Ministry of Labor undersecretary for customer services and labor relations Ziyad Al-Sayegh said authorities were working on drafting the regulations necessary for the coverage of domestic servants, announcing new electronic initiatives on the ministry's website for domestic labor.
The ministry will set fixed recruitment fees soon, he said.
Discussing the status of Saudi employees in the private sector, he said the salaries of around 1.33 million of them have exceeded SR3,000 since the Nitaqat program to improve Saudization levels was implemented.
However, over 110,000 of them get less than SR3,000 a month.
Al-Sayegh said: “We have conducted a survey on the private sector and noticed that most workers and managers don't have a clue about the labor laws.
“We want to raise their awareness and will be working with the Ministry of Education to spread a proper labor culture as well as awareness of laws and regulations.”
Ibrahim Al-Moaiqil, director of the Human Resources Development Fund, said it is better and more secure for the Gulf region to choose Saudi workers over expatriates.
“We want Saudis to be in high demand inside and outside the Kingdom,” he said, announcing the establishment of a new system that will include the names of all Saudi workers in the private sector.
The system will be called the Employee Nitaqat System and will include the details of each Saudi worker in the private sector.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health is finalizing arrangements to launch new centers for assessing the health of potential domestic household workers.
The ministry is also due to launch new centers for assessing candidates for government jobs, Al-Yaum daily said.
An official source said the ministry wants to move beyond using specific hospitals to carry out medical assessments. It will designate and refurbish its own health centers, the source said.
The source said it is expected that three centers will be opened each in Riyadh, the Eastern Province and Jeddah, while the remaining cities will receive centers according to need.
This step aims to reduce crowding and long waiting times at the existing centers in several hospitals belonging to the ministry.
These centers will conduct tests for domestic workers including housemaids and drivers and will forward the results to the Passport Department through the “Ifadah” electronic system.
The system aims to guarantee transparency and efficiency.
Ifadah also allows for the performance of the centers to be monitored and statistical studies to be generated. Circulars on testing expatriate workers can be sent to the health centers quickly.
