COVID-19: 57 Riyadh businesses fined for breaking labour rules, 90 warned

Abu Dhabi: The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has booked 57 businesses and issued 90 warnings to others for breaking labour rules, Saudi media reported.

Inspectors of the ministry have made 2,000 inspections of businesses across the capital Riyadh and its provinces.

The ministry has launched a campaign to educate expatriate workers on the need to follow health protocols in their lifestyle within and outside their workplaces, in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus.

The campaign is being carried out in cooperation with a number of government agencies, including Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Media, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, and a number of support agencies.

The ministry said that the campaign includes various activities such as field awareness at the workplace and labour camps, sending text messages and using various means of the social media.

The field campaign aims to raise awareness among the expatriate workers, disseminate among them vital information with regard to precautionary measures and preventive protocols against coronavirus after collecting statistics of these workers.

The campaign will be carried out in three phases and will cover workers, employers and the society as well.

It will ensure compliance of preventive protocols by each member of the expatriate community as well as motivate employers to assume their responsibilities in this regard and emphasize the need to disclose in the event of any cases of infection.

The ministry also aspires to take advantage of the services of volunteers and as well field inspectors in the campaign so as to reach out to more than 60 per cent of the expatriate workforce in the kingdom, and educate them thoroughly on how to prevent the spread of the pandemic.