Saudi Arabia reforms labour legal guidelines, grants extra rights to expatriate employees; Particulars right here

This is in line with Saudi Arabia’s image of upholding the rights of expatriate workers.

Labor laws in Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s labor laws have been reformed by the country’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. The changes would give foreign workers additional rights. The changes are in line with Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s National Transformation Program (NTP). The ministry announced the changes at a press conference in Riyadh. The initiative called “Labor Relation Initiative” is to be implemented in March next year, according to a statement published by the ministry. This would give workers living abroad a mobility of workers.

In addition, the existing exit procedures have been changed so that they do not conflict with Saudi labor law while maintaining international best practices for immigration.

The ministry said the hope was that the reforms would lead to increased competition in the country’s labor market as workers could switch employers. That being said, employers could also hire the best talent for their company. This would ultimately lead to an increase in public spending in the kingdom, according to the ministry, as wages have increased due to competition.

The initiative reflects the kingdom’s commitment to developing its local labor market while also leading to better regulation so that it benefits both workers and employers, the ministry said.

This is in line with Saudi Arabia’s image of upholding the rights of expatriate workers and its efforts to improve labor market efficiency. The kingdom also believes the reforms would reduce mobility or end disputes between foreign workers and employers over visa exit, it added.

Among other things, the reforms would enable foreign workers to transfer sponsorship from one employer to another, obtain a permanent exit visa and also apply for an exit or re-entry visa, the statement said. All of these steps would now be automatically approved without the employer having to give their consent. The public could access these three services through the Ministry’s web portal or through a mobile application called “Absher”.

This is one of several similar initiatives launched in Saudi Arabia to make the local labor market more efficient. The initiatives include the introduction of a “Widy” mechanism to facilitate out-of-court settlements in the event of labor disputes, the wage protection system (WPS) or the electronic documentation of all employment contracts.

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