As part of Vision 2030, the Ministry of Labour has announced the implementation of the ‘Weighted Nitiqat’ programme, which is designed to be an enhanced version of their Nitaqat programme. The programme is designed to promote quality employment for Saudi nationals.
To date, the focus of Nitiqat has been to increase the number of Saudi nationals employed within the private sector. Now, the Ministry feels that it is time to address concerns regarding the level of roles Saudi nationals are being engaged to do. The Weighted Nitiqat is due to be introduced on 12 Rabie Al Awal (corresponding approximately to 11 December 2016).
Under the new system, there will be five criteria according to which an employer’s compliance rating will be decided upon. They are as follows:
i) The number of Saudi nationals employed in the business;
ii) The average salary paid to Saudi employees in the business (total salaries paid to Saudi nationals divided by the number of Saudi nationals);
iii) The number or percentage of Saudi women employed in the business (number of women divided by the total number of employees);
iv) Retention of Saudi nationals within the business (average time Saudi employees remain with the business calculated by taking the total number of years served by Saudi employees and dividing by the number of Saudi employees); and
v) The number or percentage of Saudi nationals within the top 25% of highly paid employees.
Under the revised system, points will be awarded to those employers that reach the above criteria.
Saudi Arabia