Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The minister of labor has announced that the Nitaqat Program will look into disparity in salaries of Saudi employees and their non-Saudi counterparts. While opening a meeting at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mufrej Al-Haqbani said the ministry would launch its Nitaqat 3 Program soon. "We are trying to create a productive society with productive members. When Nitaqat program was put in place we wanted to encourage the private sector to hire more Saudis in order to tackle unemployment in the Kingdom," said Al-Haqbani. [caption id="attachment_20634" align="alignnone" width="750"] Mufrej Al-Haqbani Minister of Labor[/caption] He said the Saudization process led to fake and unproductive Saudization. "We faced problems with companies falsely registering names of Saudis as employees when they are not. We also faced the problem of Saudis occupying unproductive jobs and receiving low salaries. In order to tackle the problem, we will be looking into the salaries Saudis receive in companies in comparison to the salaries their non-Saudi colleagues receive," said Al-Haqbani. He added the new Nitaqat 3 Program will look into the positions Saudis occupy in the Kingdom. "The more hire the salary of Saudi employees in a company, the more points it receives in the system. Also, the more Saudis occupying managerial and leading positions in the company, the more points it will receive," said Al-Haqbani. He added the ministry is also trying to increase the employment of Saudi women. "We also grant points to companies employing Saudi women. Although the retail sector has been the most active of sectors in employing women as saleswomen, the ministry aims to empower women further and have them take on leading and pioneering positions in the country," said Al-Haqbani. He added that the rate of unemployment is not decreasing, especially in women unemployment as it has increased from 15 percent to 32.8 percent.
