Foreign workers have expressed relief at recent statements made by Labor Minister Adil Fakieh. Fakieh Sunday was quoted as saying that the Ministry of Labor will soon unveil a plan to train and employ poor Burmese and African expatriates who have been living in unplanned areas in Makkah for decades. Although this is meant just for a specific groups of people, other expats living in the Kingdom for decades feel that the move might one day be expanded to cover other areas. Fakieh was quoted as saying in the Arabic media Saturday that the plan falls under the Nitaqat Program, the government's Saudization drive. The employment of every four Burmese will be counted as one Saudi, he added. The details of the program are being finalized by the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Interior. An informed source said there has been a great deal of progress in the government's plan to provide jobs for people living in undeveloped areas in Makkah. The Labor Ministry is considering asking private companies to provide training for these expatriates after conducting a comprehensive survey of jobs needed locally. The source said the government's plan is based on humanitarian, security and social considerations. In an interview with a news agency earlier this month, the Labor Minister said that Saudi Arabia will soon launch a system to monitor wage payments to company staff. He stressed the wage system to be launched in the next three months and the other steps taken by the Ministry were not designed to slash the size of Saudi Arabia's huge foreign workforce, and that the government did not plan drastic reductions in the number of visas issued to foreign workers. Instead, he said, the government aimed to cut unemployment among Saudi citizens, now about 10.5 percent, and to boost the number of Saudi citizens employed in the private sector by 50 percent over the next three years. “Our country is growing at a very pace rates and there are huge and historic projects. Reducing foreign labor is not a goal because it would affect the speed of implementation of development programs in the Kingdom. We have no objection to issuing more visas if this does not affect the availability of career opportunities for our sons,” he added. The new wage monitoring system, designed in cooperation with other official agencies such as the central bank, will check that monthly salaries paid to Saudi and expatriate employees are paid into their bank accounts in line with the terms of their employment contracts. “In the first phase, it will be applied to large companies. This will be within two months or three at the latest,” Fakieh said, adding that smaller firms would be brought in gradually and a full range of firms would be monitored in a year. In the long term, the system will help the Ministry introduce a scheme under which companies will be rated by authorities not only according to the ratios of Saudi citizens in their workforces, but also based on the proportions of their payrolls being paid to Saudi citizens, he said. The new scheme is intended to encourage companies to appoint Saudis to higher and better-paid positions. Fakieh did not specify when it might be introduced. About 8 million foreign workers have been brought in to fill jobs in the oil sector, retail and manufacturing businesses, and other areas. At the same time, unemployment is high among the estimated 16 million Saudi citizens, who account for only about 10 percent of private sector employment. The government has responded with employment bureaux, job subsidies and regulations to push private sector companies into hiring more Saudi citizens instead of foreigners. A scheme launched last year penalizes firms if they fail to reach minimum ratios of Saudis in their workforces and rewards them if they greatly exceed those targets. The Minister said the results of recent efforts to boost Saudi employment had been excellent, but did not give details. He expressed concern, however, at latest data for unemployment benefits which showed a high proportion of women among the unemployed. According to official figures from 2009, women make up almost half of all Saudis listed as looking for work. As part of cautious efforts to encourage the employment of women, King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, ordered last year that lingerie shops should have exclusively female staff. “We believe that the retail sector is the biggest sector that will be able to employ a large number of women,” Fakieh said, adding that the government would also take steps to promote the employment of women in factories and at home.
