Saudi Arabia: Private firms hire 2,225 Saudi nationals to avoid fines

Riyadh, Dec 14: A recent report of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, seen by Okaz/Saudi Gazette, showed that there are 2,225 Saudis who have been employed during the recent period by private sector establishments under a scheme of settling violations imposed on them.

These firms took advantage of the violation settlement service, launched by the ministry earlier, in exchange for an increase in the rate of Saudization.

According to the conditions, in order to benefit from the violation settlement service the firm must give a commitment to employ Saudi citizens for a full year, and the firm’s Nitaqat category should be green or higher, in addition to approving the employee’s minimum salary of SR4,000 or more.

The ministry recently approved a regulation under which the Saudi employee’s wage should not be less than SR4,000 to be counted as one Saudi for Nitaqat Saudization program.

In the new service, the ministry stipulated that the establishments need not pay the fines for violations through taking advantage of the violation settlement service.

The ministry stressed that the mechanisms for using the service are made through the employer’s electronic portal, through the icon “Objections service and settlement of work violations from the list of electronic services” and then selecting “services of firms.”

The business owner shall chose the specific violations and make a request to settle them by attaching special files such as work contracts and insurance certificates for the number of Saudis and non-Saudis. Accordingly, the request will be processed instantly, the ministry said.

It is noteworthy that the ministry announced earlier that the conditions for benefiting from the initiative included that the employer submit a settlement request through the electronic services portal within 30 days from the date of the imposition of the penalty, and that the request for settlement was submitted not for an earlier violation for which an objection had previously been submitted.

The employer shall hire the Saudi employee after the date of the imposition of the penalty and his name shall be registered with the General Organization for Social Insurance before attaching his data to the settlement request.

In the event of termination of the Saudi employee, the firm must employ a substitute with the same conditions within 30 days from the date of the warning or the settlement service would be canceled.

The conditions also include that the number of Saudis at the time of the settlement request must be less or equal to the number of Saudis before the date of the settlement request, and that the same employee is not used for more than one settlement of violations by an establishment.

It is also stipulated that the owner of the firm shall respond to the requests and inquiries of the settlement team within a period not exceeding seven days and otherwise the settlement request will be canceled automatically.