JEDDAH — The Ministry of Labor is not conducting a witch-hunt on companies to see if they are committing any violations, said one of its deputy ministers. Abdullah Abu Ithnain said 90 percent of the ministry's work involves providing advice to companies. He said: "However, we are uncompromising about four types of violations, including the fake employment of Saudis, expatriates not working for their sponsors, expatriates working on their own and not employing women in shops selling lingerie, makeup, abayas, wedding dresses and women's accessories." The ministry has visited 10,000 companies and documented 750 major violations, mainly expatriates not working for their sponsors. The procedure followed in this case is to document the violation and set a one-month negotiation period between the ministry and the company. If no agreement is reached, then a punishment is issued. If the violation involves expatriates, then the case is transferred to the Ministry of Interior. Punishments includes two years in prison and/or a SR100,000 fine. However, if the case involves fake employment of Saudis, then it stays in the hands of the Ministry of Labor. Abu Ithnain also said that they are now working in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce to provide training to inspection officers. This training, he said, will equip officers to be able to note any violations, whether related to the regulations of the Ministry of Commerce or Ministry of Labor. Abu Ithnain was speaking on the sidelines of the Human Resources Forum that opened on Sunday at Jeddah Hilton. On its second day, the forum discussed nationalization of jobs and the creation of an effective work environment. Mari Qawar, regional consultant for skills and operations at the International Labor Organization, said the Saudi market suffers from a lack of diversification in its economy. She also pointed out that as the market relied on expatriates with low wages, Saudis stayed away from private sector jobs and were willing to work only for the government sector, which offers better salaries. Saudis working for the private sector are a minority, she added. According to her, this is a problem that developed over years because expatriates were able to increase in number while Saudis were kept away from the market. This, she said, prompted decision makers to implement specific measures to put an end to this problem. "The employment of Saudis in the private sector has been achieved through a government decision to allocate a budget for training and employment programs and support and encourage the employment of Saudis," said Qawar. She said the employment of Saudis is a national initiative that has stretched over 25 years. “While this strategy is well designed, its implementation is still a challenge as the unemployment rate has jumped from 10.5 percent in 2009 to 12.3 percent in 2012,” said Qawar. While she believed that the private sector has achieved remarkable progress in the employment of Saudis and regulations are firm in this regard, Qawar said more needs to be done. The public sector is not capable of employing all Saudis, Qawar said, calling for cooperation between the public and private sectors to find jobs for more Saudis. What the Kingdom needs now is to increase wages of expatriates to encourage Saudis to approach different jobs. Setting a minimum wage, she said, is essential to ensure a decent life for all locals. The Kingdom needs an urgent built-up wage scale, she said, adding that the minimum wage can be set through consultations between government agencies, business owners and labor committees. Ibrahim Al-Muaiqli, general manager of the Human Resources Development Fund at the Ministry of Labor, inaugurated the forum Sunday on behalf of Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh. He said they would soon announce the minimum wage for Saudis. This, he said, will be done after the finalization of a study conducted by the King Abdulaziz National Center for Studies. Three parties have contributed to this study, including the labor committees, the Ministry of Labor and the private sector. He added that they are now working on creating a website that will serve the labor market. The website will provide information on job seekers in the public, private and military sectors. The ministries of labor, social affairs and planning and economy are now working to finalize the needed information to set up this website. Speaking to journalists, Al-Muaiqli said the ministry is currently targeting beauty salons, which he said were ideal for Saudi women to work in. He added they would allow wives of expatriates to work in these salons under special circumstances.
