In wide ranging comments made at an Eid celebration at the Ministry of Labor, Saturday, the Minister of Labor, Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, said that the global financial crisis will not increase unemployment in the Kingdom in spite of the bankruptcy and downsizing of companies. He said that the pillars of the Saudi economy are solid and not affected by deteriorating global financial markets. Unemployment in the Kingdom, he pointed out, is an issue related to the jobs available in local development projects. Answering allegations that the new mega economic cities will exclude Saudis, the Minster said that although these cities are exempted from the Saudization law, they will employ qualified personnel, and they will not exclude Saudis. The Minister reviewed a study being conducted to attract Saudis to the new emerging career of industrial security, and he said that the National Center for Employment will kick off in two months funded by part of the Human Resources Fund. Dr. Al-Gosaibi said that the Ministry of Labor is hoping to stay away from introducing a minimum wage law for ethical and legal reasons. Some companies, he said, pay as little as SR800 a month which is embarrassing and humiliating to the country. The Minister said that he is asking such companies to increase both the salaries and on-the-job training for their employees. Seventy percent of low income Saudi workers are high school graduates, he added. At the other extreme, he said, some Saudis receive salaries of SR 300,000 and others receive a SR 1 million as an end of service payment. Saudi companies have played around with the Saudization law to try to fool the system, the Minister said. He said that the Governor of Social Security told him about a particular national company that had on its books 280,000 fake jobs registered in the names of Saudis. Dr. Gosaibi said that he was not happy about this and wants to punish such companies. Regarding the employment of women, he said that his Ministry does not want to get involved with the clash of ideology that goes along with the issue of the employment of women in the Kingdom, saying that the Ministry of Labor is not a part of this contentious issue even though there are some who would like to involve it. The Minister said there are regulations that advance women's employment in the Kingdom in accordance with the Islamic Shariah. However, the final decision on a woman's employment is up to her and her family. The government's responsibility is limited to providing a suitable environment for her employment. The Minister, refuting rumors that he has an army of servants working in his palace in Riyadh, said that he has in fact only two servants – one from Sri Lanka and one from Ethiopia. – Okaz __
