Saudi Arabia: Recruitment agencies responsible for domestic workers’ probation
Responsibility devolves to employer after trial period of at least 90 days
Cairo: Saudi Arabia’s government labour platform has made recruitment offices responsible for domestic workers’ probationary period of at least 90 days.
As part of its efforts to regulate the labour market, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources has set up the Musaned domestic labour platform to help clients learn about their rights and duties, and related services including visa issuance, recruitment requests and contractual relation between the employer and the worker.
Answering a query from a Saudi citizen, the Musaned programme has pointed out that the recruitment office is held responsible for the worker for whom the office has mediated to bring him/her in for a period of at least 90 days starting from the date of arrival in the kingdom.
The second party, i.e. the employer, will be responsible for the worker, in case the responsibility duration of the first party ends.
The Musaned also helps regulate and automate the recruitment process starting from giving the customer access to all recruitment offices in the kingdom and picking the most suitable, depending on a host of factors including prices, and previous clients’ feedback without the need to visit each of them.
The ministry has made the contracting process obligatory via the Musaned, being the official recruitment platform in the kingdom.
Last month, the Saudi labour authorities said the non-Saudi worker’s expenses including fees of recruitment as well as those of iqama and work permits, are borne by the employer.
Other expenses borne by the employer include profession change fees, exit/re-entry as well as the home return flight ticket for the employee after their contractual relationship ends.
Saudi Arabia hosts a large community of migrant workers.
In 2020, the kingdom introduced major labour reforms, drastically improving its sponsorship system. 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.