Manama: Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council has rejected attempts to amend the labour law and successfully upheld its own decision for a two-day weekend and 40 hours of work weekly for the private sector.
The Shura insisted that employees and workers in the private sector should work a maximum of eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.
The load is reduced for Muslims during the fasting month of Ramadan to seven hours a day or 35 hours a week.
The Shura was reacting to a proposal by the government to amend Article 98 of the Labour Law in order to allow employers to make their employees or workers work for nine hours a day or 45 hours a week. The government said that the workload of Muslims should be reduced to seven hours a day or 35 hours a week during Ramadan, Saudi news site Sabq reported.
In October, the Labour ministry said it would conduct a study to determine the possibility of having a two-day weekend and a 40-hour work week for the private sector.
The study is to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the move as well as the views of the business community and the effect on Saudi jobseekers who are almost invariably attracted by the more generous conditions, including fewer hours and less workload and pressure, of the public sector.
The powerful business community had mostly resisted the move, arguing it would affect the economy.
During the heated Shura Council debate on Tuesday, Council Member Fahad Bin Jumaa pushed for keeping working hours at 40 hours per week and called for increasing the minimum wage to 6,000 Saudi riyals.
Shura Member Hatem Al Marzooqi called for shorter hours, arguing that the long hours have pushed a high number of Saudis to avoid jobs in the private sector.
Khalifa Al Dossari said that women in the private sector should not work more than six hours a day.
Fayez Al Shahri, another member, said that the private sector should assume its responsibilities and reduce the working load for employees and workers.
However, Shura Member Abdullah Al Saadoon said that lowering the weekly load would put new burdens on Saudi citizens. “With fewer working hours, several expatriates will take up other jobs during the weekend, and this means they will remit more money,” he said.
Shura Member Khalid Al Saud said that lowering the hours would result in more problems in the short term and would not help the national economy.
He argued that the reduction of the number of hours should be done gradually and should concur with offering new incentives to attract Saudis to the jobs in the private sector.
Around nine million of Saudi Arabia’s total population of 27 million are foreigners, mainly Asians working in the booming construction and in services in the private sector.
