Fayez, Minister of Civil Affairs has provided further details of the Royal Decrees issued Wednesday by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, concerning improvements to the professional conditions and benefits of civil service employees. Speaking to Saudi Television Friday, Al-Fayez said that ranks 14 and 15 internal employee secondment would rise from SR600 to SR800, ranks 12 and 13 from SR525 to SR700, ranks 9, 10 and 11 from SR450 to SR600, 7 and 8 from SR300 to SR400, rank 6 from SR240 to SR320, 4 and 5 from SR150 to SR200, and ranks 1,2 and 3 from SR113 to SR150. External secondment will increase, the minister said, in accordance with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs classification. Al-Fayez said the bylaw would be applicable to everyone in the civil retirement system and that it would apply to military staff in accordance with the stipulations of the Military Service Council. The minister said that travel allowance for the first five ranks would rise from SR400 to SR500, for ranks 6 to 10 from SR600 to SR700, while ranks 11, 12 and 13 would see a rise from SR600 to SR900. Rank 14 will rise from SR600 to SR1200. The allowance for “injury and infection” will go up from SR240 to SR750, Al-Fayez said. “We mean by injury and infection those allowances for members of staff who have been hurt or suffered damage such as those who work with rays and in laboratories and in preventive medicine departments or infectious disease departments, or photographing and map printing departments. The danger allowance will go up from SR200 to SR600, in view of the nature of the work, such as those working in high pressure plants or with explosives or are involved in other dangerous work,” he said. The allowance for working in remote locations will go up from 10 percent to 20 percent of the original salary at the time of appointment to the position occupied. End of service benefits at the retirement age of 60 or due to death or disability now give six months' allowance instead of the previous three, the minister said. Early retirees will now receive four salaries where before they received none. Overtime work will now be paid at 50 percent rather than 25 for all ranks. Allowance for disability or work-related injury has gone up to SR100,000 from the previous SR60,000. The 15 percent living cost allowance will now, the minister said, be incorporated into the basic salary rather than being paid as an extra, in order for employees to benefit when settling claims and for their inheritors to also benefit. Al-Fayez said that a number of Royal Decrees had been issued to make permanent employees who were working on hourly wages. Approximately 90,000 male and female teachers have been made permanent through Article 105 along with over 120,000 male and female hourly-staff. A further 204,000 teachers have been granted improved conditions, and 12,600 new rank 4 administrative positions have been created for female graduates of institutes following the cessation of their services at schools. Minister Al-Fayez said that the ministry was having “considerable difficulty” in finding appointments due to the “sheer number of male and female graduates in various subjects”.“There are other professional fields, such as health, which have a shortage of staff and a lot of vacant positions,” he said. “The number of graduates coming out of medicine faculties is limited.” Al-Fayez reiterated ministry's commitment to King Abdullah's instructions that there be no favoritism in appointments. “We are very clear about it: There are no exceptions made when appointing staff,” he said.
