JEDDAH — Labor Minister Adel Fakeih is scheduled to launch on Monday the laws to protect wages. The new rules would enable the ministry to oversee payment of wages and identify foreigners who don't work for their employers, said Hatab Bin Salih Al-Enezi, the General Supervisor of Public Relations at the ministry. He said the basic objective of the regulation is to guarantee that the Saudi and non-Saudi employees working in the private sectors get their salaries on time. He said the minster would address a press conference at the ministry's headquarters in Riyadh on Monday to mark the launch and enforcement of the new laws. He said initially the ministry would apply the regulation in phases; first the big companies then all private companies and finally all workers in the labor market. He said in order to oversee the enforcement of the laws the ministry would issue indexes monthly adding, following this the ministry's inspectors would make field tours of companies that break the rules in order to compel them to abide by the regulation. He said the ministry is working on new plans aiming to accelerate the employment of young Saudis in decent jobs with attractive salaries stressing that the Nitaqat Program is one of the most important instruments that has helped the ministry to deal with the labor market and control it. He said the reason the ministry launched its Nitaqat Program is because the Kingdom has a young population and this exerts pressure on the labor market due to the increasing number of young Saudis entering the market. He said unemployment is a serious issue with diverse negative implications that would affect the country's socioeconomic stability. This is why Nitaqat is launched now as part of the ministry's short term plans to tackle unemployment. In another development, a local Arabic daily reported that the ministry is currently working on a law to deal with the remittances that the expatriate workers send home. The law, according to the Al-Watan daily, makes it mandatory for any foreign worker in the country not to remit home money that exceeds his salary. Those breaking this law, would be held, investigated and punished. The law is being studied because of the illicit methods legal residents resort to while remitting money of the illegal aliens.
