Manpower to be provided in 24 hours DAMMAM/RIYADH – The proposed unified recruitment companies will provide workers within 24 hours to people who need them, provided that applicants do not seek people with uncommon specializations or rare skills. Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior, on Sunday announced setting up of unified recruitment companies. Sources said salaries provided by the companies would range between SR1,000 and SR1,500 and steps will be taken to ensure that the workers' rights are not violated. Three companies, in Riyadh, Jeddah and Damman, will start operating when they are approved by authorities, according to sources who said that they hope more companies will be established to serve the central, western and eastern regions. Sources said specifying salaries of employees, whether they are domestic workers or employed in other professions, would be based on existing procedures and regulations including the issuance of residence permits, their renewals and other financial commitments. Those aspects of the hiring processes will be reflected in costs for recruiting workers and their salaries. Regulations for the unified recruitment companies stipulate that a bank account must be opened for each worker and salaries must be directly transferred to their accounts to guarantee that their rights are not violated, according to sources. Sources said that anyone who applies to hire a worker will get a response within 24 hours. Applicants can employ the workers for two years and the regulations should eliminate the black market for expatriate workers, protect workers' rights and those of people who hire them, according to sources. The new system will also help limit the number of cases of workers illegally leaving their employers and working for people who did not sponsor them, sources added. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor admitted that the rate of foreign recruitment has increased by three percent over last year to bring the number of expatriate workers to 1.24 million. The ministry said this figure includes seasonal visas, which totaled 50,756. Sources said the number of domestic helpers who have been approved to work for individuals has reached 495,800 while the number of workers for government authorities has reached 70,920. The number of workers whose services have been approved for transfer has reached 110,530, an increase of 85 percent. The same sources pointed out that the Ministry of Labor has approved changing the profession of 22,120 expatriate workers, an increase of 65 percent. The organization issued 3,598,317 work permits, a 21-percent increase from last year.
