Saudi Arabia: 3,322 domestic workers’ recruitment agents booked for failing to abide by regulations
Ministry’s domestic labor recruitment website Musaned assumes hiring domestic help
Abu Dhabi: Saudi Ministry of Human Resources teams made more than 18,845 inspections of various companies across the Eastern Region in December, to ensure employers abide by market rules, local media reported.
Some 3,667 violations were issued to 3,322 companies, while 14,139 other companies were found to be law-abiding, Aref Al Shahri, director of the region’s inspection department, said.
Inspection teams, he added, have recovered SR630,000 from recruiting agents of domestic workers, who failed to abide contracts signed with clients.
Saudi Arabia resumed hiring domestic workers in October after a hiatus of nearly seven months with the outbreak of COVID-19.
The Human Resources Ministry’s domestic labor recruitment website Musaned is accepting applications for new contracts, with the country phasing out other recruitment agents.
According to the new ministerial directive, the recruitment period for new contracts is 120 days. If a licensed firm fails to recruit the domestic help within 120 days, the contract is automatically extended for 30 more days, with the imposition of a fine amounting to 15 per cent of the contract value for the non-compliance of the contractual obligations.
In October, Saudi Arabia launched a new regime to receive domestic workers at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.
As part of the new regime, recruitment offices and companies are responsible for receiving and accommodating domestic workers, who have been hired through brokers and those arriving on the exit and return system.
The new system is already in place at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.
According to the new regime, recruitment companies and offices have to receive domestic workers who arrive for the first time immediately after they complete their entry procedures at the airports, while employers need to receive domestic workers arriving on the exit and re-entry system directly and the task of receiving them is under the responsibility of employers.
The new system will be applied in other international airports in the Kingdom, and the date of its commencement will be announced later.