Please register to access this content.
To continue viewing the content you love, please sign in or create a new account
Dismiss
This content is for our paying subscribers only

Gulf Saudi

Saudi Arabia: Government health professionals can work for private sector too

Such workers are obligated to obtain specific licences, ministry says



Last November, Saudi labour authorities said a private sector worker in Saudi Arabia can do two jobs at the same time. Illustrative image.
Image Credit: Pexels

Cairo: Health Professionals working for government institutions can also take on jobs in the private sector in Saudi Arabia with strings attached, according to the kingdom’s health authorities.

The health ministry has obligated such workers to obtain specific licences.

Click here to get exclusive content with Gulf News WhatsApp channel

“Violation (of this) lies in the government health practitioner’s work at the health private sector without a licence, or in times other than the specific ones,” the ministry added, without elaborating.

Also read

In recent years, Saudi Arabia, home to a large community of expat workers, has sought to regulate its job market, and boost its attractiveness and competitiveness.

Advertisement

Pvt sector workers can do two jobs

Last November, Saudi labour authorities said a private sector worker in Saudi Arabia can do two jobs at the same time.

The authorities noted at the time that in such a case, the worker’s employment contract and bylaws of the employing establishment should be checked to ensure they do not have a term proscribing keeping two jobs.

Also last year, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources unveiled an authentication plan via its Qiwa platform obligating private sector institutions to document 20 per cent of their employees’ contracts in the first quarter of 2023, 50 per cent in the second half, and 80 per cent in the third quarter.

The plan is designed to preserve rights of parties to the contractual relationship, and provide a stable labour environment conducive for the employee’s productivity increase and boosting the job market in the kingdom.

In 2020, Saudi Arabia introduced major labour reforms, drastically improving its sponsorship system.

Advertisement

The reforms, which went into effect in the ensuing year, allow job mobility and regulate the exit and re-entry visa issuance for expatriate workers without employers’ approval.

Employee mobility allows expatriate workers to transfer among employers upon the expiry of the binding work contract without the employer’s consent.

The exit and re-entry visa reforms, meanwhile, allow expatriate workers to travel outside Saudi Arabia without the employers’ approval after submitting a request.

Advertisement