The Labor Office in Jeddah on Saturday rejected an advertisement by a well-known mall looking to hire female Saudi cleaners. Qusay Falaly, Director General of the Jeddah Labor Office, stressed that this kind of work was not in conformity with the Ministry of Labor decision No. 20 to provide jobs for Saudi women. He said advertising for vacancies in such jobs is not acceptable and expressed the hope that jobs for Saudi women would not be restricted to such fields. The announcement was part of an advertisement for many jobs placed in the facade of the mall. Many people considered this to demean the role of Saudi women especially since many of the jobs in the mall have not been Saudized and they could have been considered as vacancies for Saudis. Several customers in the market said the mall specified a salary of SR700 while the salaries of many expatriates are in the thousands of riyals. Wajeeh Abdul Aziz, in charge of the mall, said the announcement came in accordance with the directives of the Ministry of Labor and the Labor Office in Jeddah within the sphere of providing jobs to Saudi women only. Muhammad Sa'eed Al-Hazmi, a security guard at the mall, said the announcement angered many people who tried several times to tear it off.
