A large number of retail sector investors have called on the Ministry of Labor to solve the problem of the two-shift work day for women workers after a large number of women had to quit their jobs due to the high cost of transportation. Workers in the Kingdom's retail sector usually get a 2-4 afternoon break between morning and evening shifts. But for many women, the afternoon break often means they have to pay drivers extra money to take them to and from work, Al-Watan newspaper reported. Ahmad Abdul Rahman, sales director of a large retail company, said over 80 women workers quit their job in his company because they couldn't afford transportation costs. “Each worker pays the driver about SR1,200 for transportation, an amount which makes a big dent in their pocket. They had to leave us and we had no choice but to search for male workers to fill the vacant positions,” he said. Abdul Rahman called upon the ministry to offer more incentives to women workers to encourage them to work and find a solution to the two-shift problem, which also costs employers a lot of money. He suggested that the ministry set work hours from 1 P.M. to 9 P.M. “The ministry's representatives carry out inspection visits to shops to ensure that these shops have replaced male workers with female ones while ignoring the losses shops incur for making such replacements. Any new worker, male or female, needs training and this takes times and affects our sales,” added Abdul Rahman. Abdul Monem Bilal, executive director of a retail company, agreed that the two-shift work and difficulty to find transportation have forced a lot of women to quit their jobs. Just recently, he added, over 25 women resigned from their jobs in the company because their families didn't want them to work late hours. “Usually, a female worker gets off work at 10:30 P.M. and gets home by 11 p.m. which is too late for them. Many families got into arguments with their daughters over this.” Salam Mahmoud, sales director of a company, said his company still receives job applications from women despite the fact that many of them do not stay for long due to various reasons including low salaries and difficulty in finding transportation. Fahd Al-Tekhaifi, assistant undersecretary for development at the Ministry of Labor, refused to comment on the problem and called on the media not to blow things out of proportion. “The ministry exerts great efforts to remove any obstacles that stand in the way of women's work. It's normal that some investors face such problems with female workers coming and going but this is not a big problem.”
