Cairo: A Saudi government portal responsible for domestic labour affairs has highlighted the average fee and caps for hiring house workers from six countries as part of ongoing efforts to regulate the sector in the kingdom.
The Musaned platform, linked to the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources, put the maximum fees of recruiting such workers from Uganda at SR8,300 and the average at SR6,635, Ethiopia at SR5,900 while the average at SR5,259, Kenya at SR9,000 and SR7,609, Bangladesh at SR11,750 and SR9,276, Sri Lanka at SR13,800 and SR13,446, while those from the Philippines at SR14,700 and the average at SR14,447, respectively.
The recruitment prices were specified less than two weeks before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when the demand surges for the service of domestic labour.
Saudi labour authorities have recently sought to regulate the domestic labour market.
10-hour duty
To this end, the Ministry of Human Resources launched Musaned to help customers learn about their rights and duties and re-lated services including visa issuance, recruitment requests and the con-tractual relation between the employer and the worker.
The ministry has said it is necessary to conduct contracting via the Musaned, being the official recruitment platform.
Last October, Saudi Arabia unveiled new rules for employing domestic workers, setting the worker’s minimum age at 21 years as part of efforts to preserve contractual rights.
The regulations stress that the dues owed to the worker or his/her heirs are considered first-degree debts.
The contract should have a fixed dura-tion, and if not, it will be considered renewable for one year from the date of the worker doing the job.
According to the rules, the house worker’s daily working hours are set at 10 hours and the employee is entitled to weekly paid successive 24-hour rest.
The employer is, meanwhile, prohibited from withholding the do-mestic worker’s passport, other personal documents or belongings.
