Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The Ministry of Labor will start this June the seventh phase of a wage protection system that will target companies employing 170 people and more. The system will be implemented next Monday and is expected to cover 2,171 companies with a total of over 432,900 employees. Abdullah Abu Ethnain, deputy minister of labor for investigation and development of the work environment, called on all companies in this category to provide data on their employees. He said any company that does not provide the information needed within two months of the implementation of the system will be cut off from labor services, except for the issuance of work licenses. If the company is three months late all labor services will be stopped and its employees will be permitted to transfer to other employers without needing to get permission from the violating company. He added all companies can check the schedule for the wage protection system and they can register in advance to test the system even if they are not yet eligible. Abu Ethnain said that the ministry is keen to implement the wage protection system in all private sector establishments. He said: “This is essential to specify the wage categories for various jobs and will also contribute to reducing labor disputes. “The ministry will not hesitate to implement the system in all companies based on the time schedule we have specified.” The system, he said, is one of the ministry's programs to monitor the labor market, protect the rights of the employees and maintain the transparency of wage information. It will help maintain a healthy work environment that encourages the increase of productivity, he claimed. The database created will also help the ministry issue accurate statistics about the labor market, he added.
