The hope that many young Saudis have of joining a good private business often seems to be jeopardized by the private sector itself amid a rising illegal visa trade and the manipulation of the requirements of the Saudization quota. An energetic unemployed young Saudi who went to apply for a job was shocked when he heard that he could not work in two jobs at the same time. “But I am not employed,” Muhammad Ali told his prospective employer. “Your name is on the list of employees of another company,” he was told. Muhammad took his case to the Labor Office in Jeddah. “Yes, it happens,” he was told. Muhammad is not alone. Hassan Al-Himdi went to the labor office looking for a job, but they told him that he has been employed since 2001. Although Al-Himdi spent less than one month in that job, he is apparently still on their list of employees. There were over 990 fake cases of employment of Saudis fabricated to fill the Saudiaztion quota, especially in small businesses, in one single year in Jeddah alone, said Qusai Filali, director of the Jeddah Labor Office. Small businesses in Jeddah make up 70 percent of about 125,000 licensed businesses. The Labor Ministry has been an ardent supporter of employing Saudis in the private sector, he said. In 2008, the Jeddah Labor Office helped 10,048 Saudis to be employed in private businesses, thereby increasing the total number of employed Saudis in Jeddah businesses to 223,417 as compared to 1,326,592 foreign workers. The Labor Office in Jeddah has designated areas inside its building for business representatives to interview Saudi applicants and give them an instant reply to their applications. The Labor Ministry has come under fire in the Shoura Council for issuing over two million work visas in the last two years while helping only 150,000 Saudis to be employed. The attack at the Labor Ministry was intensified by Shoura Council member Talal Abu Bakr. “We are not short of laws that guarantee good jobs for Saudis, we just need to apply the law,” Abu Bakr said. Submitted to the Labor Ministry, fake lists of employed Saudis issued by private businesses have been rapidly becoming a business trend in the last three years. The trend has a two-pronged approach, Filali said. A private business may strike an agreement to list a Saudi on its employment roster for a little financial aid for the national, or the company may simply use the national's identity without his or her approval on the list that it submits to the ministry to show that it has met the Saudiaztion quota requirement, he added. The citizen should have a better sense of national responsibility and should not allow his name to be used against the public interest, said Habib Turkistani, a marketing consultant. The main reason behind these tricks is to get more work visas for illegal trade. A work visa can be sold for as much as SR10,000. Muhammad Saeed, a foreign worker, hangs out at the workers bridge in Jeddah looking for someone to pick him up for a quick day's work. “I have spent SR4,000 for the visa alone,” he said. There are complicated issues regarding the visa trade and the foreign workforce coming to the Kingdom, said Turkistani. “Is the visa issue the business of the Labor Ministry or just one of its many responsibilities?” he asked, questioning the procedures behind the issuing of work visas. There are issues of the actual work of foreign workers, their training and performance, their relationship and rights with their employers, improvement of the job market, and a whole series of labor issues, he said. Employers need to have a sense of national and social responsibility, but what is out there is no more than a blame game between the Labor Ministry and private businesses, Turkistani added. The Jeddah Labor Office conducts sudden inspection tours on businesses to make sure they have been in compliance with the requirements of the Saudization quota and licensing, and the number of foreign employees, he said. Violating businesses are reported to the minister himself who personally studies the cases. Many businesses have been barred from getting work visas for five years.
