Ninety percent of the Kingdom's workforce does not read the nation's labor laws, said Khaled Abu-Rashid, Vice President of the Paris-based International Justice Organization, in a speech at a forum on workers' rights here Sunday. The forum was held to discuss changes in the labor laws as a result of the Kingdom joining the World Trade Organization. Abu-Rashid said ignorance of the law on the part of both employers and employees was the main reason for the increasing number of court cases dealing with workers' rights, he added. “We decided to hold this forum after noting that more than 1,200 work related cases had been lodged for investigation with the Labor Office in Makkah,” said Abu-Rashid. “Such litigation is a result of management failing to follow rules set out in the labor laws resulting in an annual loss of more than SR250 million to the private sector,” he said. More than 100 human resource experts participating in the forum discussed subjects, such as workers' contracts and how to create them, common mistakes made when firing employees, the right to annual vacation, and end-of-service benefits. “Workers in the private sector face a number of contractual problems,” added Abu-Rashid. “Many private companies fire their employees suddenly without making them aware of their rights.” “Workers need to read the labor laws so that no one can deceive them. This is true for all employees whether they have been in the company for one year or 25 years and whether they are working as a general manager or a simple clerk,” said Abu-Rashid. Women's rights Women were also involved in the forum and there was much discussion of the rights of female workers. Women employees have the same rights as men and, in addition, they have the right to take leave to get married, as well as, to take maternity leave. “A pregnant women, for example, can take leave for one month before giving birth and for six weeks after the baby is delivered. During this leave she must be paid her full salary without any deductions,” added Abu-Rashid. “If the woman suffers from any health problems during her pregnancy, she has the right to six months leave after giving birth, and her employers have no right to fire her during this period.” The mother also has the right to take an hour to feed her baby during the working day, and if there are more than 50 women working together in the governmental sector, a daycare center should be provided for the children of the employees. According to Abu-Rashid, many women who work in the private sector complain of long working hours, but in fact all workers, men and women, must be paid overtime for work beyond the legal limit of eight hours per day. Abu-Rashid pointed out that many workers had no idea how to lodge a complaint against their employer or where to go to get their rights. “Most workers approach the wrong authorities who are unable to help them,” said Abu Rashid, adding that there were certain rules to follow in filing complaints and specific punishments for those who had broken the labor laws. Abu-Rashid confirmed that expatriates had the same rights as Saudis under the labor law although many expatriates facing work related difficulties kept silent thinking that only Saudis had such rights. “The labor laws use the term ‘worker' not ‘Saudi worker' or ‘expatriate worker',” said Abu-Rashid. All workers also have the same rights regardless of their religion, the only difference being in Ramadan when Muslims are suppose to work less hours than non-Muslim workers. Educating the Kingdom's workforce as to their rights under the nation's labor laws is so important that the GCC Arbitration Center and the Saudi Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) have suggested that the labor law system be taught in Saudi universities. __