Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — The Ministry of Labor urged all citizens and expatriates to lodge their complaints or observations about the performance of recruitment companies and offices. It also called upon the recruitment firms to publish details of their cost for recruitment of domestic helpers. The ministry will take penal action against the erring firms after examining the complaints. Ziad Al-Saigh, deputy minister for customer services and affairs of workers at the ministry, said the complaints may be posted on the ministry's electronic portal for domestic help Musaned (www.musaned.gov.sa) or by calling the ministry's contact center (number 19911), the Saudi Press Agency reported. He said that the ministry's initiative reflects its keenness to address all the challenges and difficulties faced in the hiring process of domestic workers. Al-Saigh said the ministry would follow up the complaints and observations made by citizens and expatriates and strive to ensure that the rights of both employers and workers are protected in line with the provisions of the labor contract signed by both the parties. He called on recruitment offices to disclose their recruitment costs for greater transparency, saying that the move would create healthy competition among recruitment firms to provide the best services in line with the ministry's strategic recruitment plan. Al-Saigh disclosed that the domestic workers can call the ministry's contact center in eight languages: Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam, Indonesian, Tagalog and Ethiopian. The center will offer services from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Saturday through Thursday in a week. In addition to this, the ministry has set up grievance committees in various regions of the Kingdom and domestic workers can file their complaints and grievances to the committees through a form which can be obtained from Musaned (Support) portal. Musaned lists key information such as rights and duties of domestic helpers and employers, names and contact numbers of recruitment offices in different regions of the Kingdom, and details about the recruitment stages and the required documents. The website contains a comprehensive brochure in various languages, in addition to a display of models of required documents including forms for exit/re-entry visa, residency permit (iqama), driving license, and recruitment application.
