JEDDAH — The Labor Ministry's recent decision to reduce the stay of foreigners in firms falling within the yellow category of Nitaqat Saudization program to four years would be counterproductive, said a leading labor expert.
Abdullah Al-Ahmari, chairman of the Real Estate Pricing Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), said the move would hamper several ongoing massive construction projects while exacerbating the incidence of fake Saudization. Moreover, it would be disastrous for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Al-Jazirah Arabic daily reported quoting him as saying.
Al-Ahmari said the ministry's move is apparently aimed at enabling firms in the lower categories of Nitaqat to improve their status.
“But unfortunately, this won't bring about the desired results and cannot be implemented under any circumstances mainly because of the continuing apathy of most Saudi jobseekers in taking up vocational and technical jobs.”
According to Al-Ahmari, SMEs will be most-affected by the ministry's decision. The decision would lead to transforming SMEs to simple job training workshops for newly-hired expatriate workers. About 60 to 70 percent of newly-hired expatriates are found to have neither any idea nor any experience in the job for which they have been hired despite their professional certificates in the respective fields. This forces firms to train them so they can do the jobs they were hired for.
“When they finally acquire sufficient experience and start to do the job, these firms will lose these experienced workers in case the ministry goes ahead with its decision. This would subsequently lead to the closure of these SMEs, and as such, the ministry's decision would be beneficial to large companies. Workers who have secured enough experience from SMEs might move to large companies at the expense of SMEs,” he said.
Al-Ahmari, who is also chairman of the board of a real estate development and investment company, said Saudi youths are reluctant to take up jobs in SMEs working in the real estate development sector. This is the case even in administrative departments that offer them salaries ranging between SR3,500 and SR6,000. He urged the ministry to take the business community into confidence before going ahead with such decisions by holding periodic meetings and conducting workshops. Such decisions can adversely affect a large number of SMEs and hundreds of thousands of foreigners working in these firms.
Al-Ahmari said that the ministry's decision would hamper several ongoing development and construction projects. There are several SMEs implementing such projects after they secured subcontracts from large firms that originally won the contracts. He urged the ministry to find other programs to boost Saudization numbers rather than going ahead with the decision to restrict expatriates' stay to four years. The ministry recently announced that the decision will go into effect on Oct. 25 and six months later, the maximum period of stay will be reduced to two years.
Al-Ahmari called on the chambers of commerce and industry across the Kingdom to take initiative, in cooperation with the ministry, to find which jobs are most suitable for Saudis in the industrial sector and provide them with the necessary training so they can take up jobs in the sector.
