Store owners of women clothing in Makkah are still discussing the directive to hire female workers, while those in Jeddah have already begun hiring Saudi saleswomen. This lagging behind on the part of Makkah's businessmen is despite their failure to have the Ministry of Labor's directive postponed. Some owners of women's clothes stores and businesswomen met recently at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce to discuss the requirements of the decision. Some participants said: “One of the obstacles which make this decision difficult to implement is the fact that some lingerie stores have a spacious area of up to 10,000 square meters. It is difficult to set up special entrances and implement the separation mechanisms that are required by the decision,” Al-Watan newspaper reported Thursday. The participants also outlined the job opportunities available to women and discussed how to train saleswomen for the job. The titles of jobs required for the stores are “clothes saleswoman, female cashier and shelf arranger”. Meanwhile, 80 percent of women's stores in Jeddah have already begun hiring Saudi saleswomen. Muhammad Al-Shehri, chairman of the textiles committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “The owners of stores in Jeddah have not expressed any desire to postpone the decision. Jeddah Chamber seeks to implement this decision for all women's stores, which sell women's clothing.” The textiles committee is conducting inspections to evaluate the response of stores to the decision. Dr. Fahd Bin Salman Al-Tekhaifi, Assistant Undersecretary for Development at the Ministry of Labor, said: “The decision which requires women's stores to hire saleswomen was issued based on a Royal Decree and should be implemented. Those who fail to implement it will be held accountable.”
