Saudi Arabia

On 30 January 2017, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs announced a new resolution limiting the ability of employers in the Kingdom to terminate the employment of KSA national employees by reason of redundancy.

As reported last month, the National Budget was announced in January 2017. Pursuant to the National Budget, KSA introduced increased visa fees for foreign nationals (where bilateral agreements are not in place) and also announced new fees payable by expatriate workers who sponsor their dependants to reside in the Kingdom.

Introduction of a monthly fee for expatriate workers and their dependents and Weighted Nitiqat System.

Last month we highlighted the new criteria under which the employer’s compliance rating will be decided upon under the new ‘Weighted Nitiqat’ programme due to be introduced next month. Under the new system, the Ministry has also revised its categorisation of small and medium sized employers.

As part of Vision 2030, the Ministry of Labour has announced the implementation of the ‘Weighted Nitiqat’ programme, which is designed to address concerns regarding the level of roles Saudi nationals are being engaged to do. Under the new system, there will be five criteria according to which an employer’s compliance rating will be decided upon and points will be awarded to those employers that reach the criteria.

2015 saw the introduction of some amendments to the KSA Labour Law, which came into effect on 18 October 2015. Such amendments include, among others, imposing fines in support of the enforcement of the KSA Labour Law amendments; introduction of a model internal labour policy as well as a standard employment contract template; employers with 50 or more employees must provide training on an annual basis to Saudi employees making up not less than 12 per cent of the total workforce (previously the requirement was for 6 per cent of the workforce), although this can also include those employees who are completing their education, where the employer is paying their education costs and