Muttari, a member of the Recruitment Committee at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Eastern Province said the Sri Lankan Labor Union is leading serious negotiations with recruitment agencies there to endorse the memorandum of understanding signed by the National Committee for Recruitment – that was to have taken effect last month. He said the Sri Lankan Labor Union has asked for more time to discuss the memorandum with local recruitment agencies. Some agencies have rejected it and others have expressed reservations about the memorandum, which reduces the recruitment fee from SR7,500 to SR5,500. Al-Muttari said some Sri Lankan agencies have insisted that the fee must not be reduced and added that the Sri Lankan Labor Union asked for some time to convince them approve the memorandum of understanding. He said the national recruitment agencies in Saudi Arabia are impatiently waiting for their counterparts in Sri Lanka to resolve the matter. Hamad Muhammad, who owns a recruitment agency in Dammam, said recruiters in the Kingdom are strictly committed to the decision to ban employment of Sri Lankan maids until agencies there approve the memo. He said recruitment offices are waiting for word from the National Committee for Recruitment to either resume recruiting Sri Lankan maids or put a permanent halt to doing so. A few weeks back, the National Committee for Recruitment directed Saudi recruitment offices to not accept citizens' new applications for Sri Lankan maids until the issue is resolved.
