RIYADH — Sattam Al-Harbi, deputy minister of Human Resources and Social Development for inspection and work environment development, said that all the 600,000 establishments operating in the private sector will be affiliated with the ministry's Mudad platform by the end of 2020. He said the platform provides payroll management service, which reduces administrative costs. "The Mudad platform currently covers 200,000 establishments where there are five or more workers, and there are still 400,000 establishments in the private sector that will join the platform on Dec. 1. "All wages of workers of these private firms will be transferred through the platform," he said, while pointing out that this mechanism would increase the efficiency of the labor market and bring down labor disputes. In an interview with Al-Arabiya channel, Al-Harbi said that the Mudad platform for wage protection has been working for the past two years with several government agencies using it. "The platform aims to raise the efficiency of the labor market and make the private sector more attractive to citizens. "Connecting the platform with the banking sector gave a lot of reliability to the initiative and the process of linking with banks gives faster monitoring and easier procedures, so that the business owner transfers salaries while the platform directly monitors the extent of the establishment's commitment through electronic linkage with banks," he added. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development launched the second version of the Wage Protection System (WPS) through the Mudad platform, which aims to enable private sector enterprises to achieve optimal compliance with the requirements of the wage protection program. The ministry directed the establishments to register on this platform, as it would be the official interface for the program from Tuesday, Nov. 3. The ministry also worked on developing the system to enable establishments to easily upload wage files. The Mudad platform launched a feature that obliges establishments to justify the reasons for non-payment of wages to workers who are under the establishment's sponsorship, as the ministry will automatically impose a fine on the establishment in the event of non-payment of wages. The establishment will have the right to view the violation and know its details and the month in which it was imposed. The reason for not depositing the salary will be sent to the worker to confirm approval or rejection of the reason. If the worker agrees to the establishment's justification for the reasons for non-payment of the wage through the "Individuals" platform on the portal, the percentage of compliance will increase immediately without the need to review the ministry's branch for justification, and the system will close the violation pertaining to violating the rules of WPS. It is noteworthy that the ministry has established Mudad platform to lead the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to a digital environment that improves and develops the financial processes related to payroll, and WPS. The portal is keen to implement all required procedures in a way protecting the rights of the enterprises and their employees. Mudad provides a professional system for SMEs to help them organize the administrative processes related to the monthly payroll and its transfer processes through a direct link to the banks. Mudad presents instant precise information of the workers through the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI). The system provides data of all the entities and employees directly through the GOSI system.
