Saudi Arabia lays down rules for hiring overseas house help
Single employer’s minimum age set at 24 years
Cairo: Saudi Arabia’s labour authorities have defined rules for issuing visas for recruiting domestic workers from abroad, setting the minimum age for a single employer at 24 years to obtain such a visa.
The regulations were announced by Musaned, a government platform in charge of domestic labour in Saudi Arabia.
According to these rules, Saudi citizens, Gulf nationals and foreign wives of Saudi men and their mothers as well as holders of Saudi premium residency permits are allowed to apply for getting visas to recruit overseas domestic labour, depending on the employers’ financial capabilities.
Saudi labour authorities recently sought to regulate the domestic labour market.
To this end, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources has set up the Musaned platform to help customers learn about their rights and duties, and related services including visa issuance, recruitment requests and contractual relation between the employer and the worker.
The platform allows the wage transfer to the labour via the apps STC pay and Urpay as part of digital services.
The transfer of a house worker’s service from one employer to the other as well as authentication of domestic labour contracts and resolution of disputes are also available on the platform.
The ministry has said it is necessary to conduct contracting via Musaned, being the official recruitment platform.
Domestic workers in the kingdom include housekeepers, drivers, housemaids, cleaners, cooks, guards, farmers, tailors, live-in nurses, tutors and nannies.