The Ministry of Labor has given all companies the go-ahead to change the titles of their employees without referring the matter to the ministry or ensuring the new titles conform to the companies' activities, reported Al-Madina Arabic daily on Wednesday. This new rule excludes medical and engineering personnel who still have to submit their original job classifications and official licenses to the ministry, according to an official ministry source. The source added that certain jobs have to be reserved for Saudis. This includes personnel managers, worker affairs managers, personnel clerks, timekeepers, receptionists, hotel receptionists, patient receptionists, report clerks, cashiers, security guards, expeditors and human resources managers and clerks. Companies have been given until the end of Rabi Al-Awwal, about the second week of March, to change the job titles of their employees. The ministry warned that if false information is submitted, companies will be banned from recruiting workers and renewing work permits for five years. The General Statistics Department showed recently that there are 8.4 million foreign workers in the Kingdom in 2011, representing 31.03 percent of the Kingdom's population. Out of this 5.9 million are males and about 2.5 million females. Adel Fakieh, Minister of Labor, said in a statement that the annual remittances of expatriates working in the Kingdom may be around SR26.6 billion yearly. He said there are about six million foreign workers in the private sector.
