What Are the Rights of Resident Workers in Saudi Arabia?

The laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia guarantee the rights of resident workers in the Kingdom. These included their right to wages, annual leave, specific working hours, receiving healthcare, end-of-service bonuses, and the right to litigation.

The labor rights protection programs in the Kingdom include electronic contract documentation, wage protection for private sector employees, workers' rights insurance, labor culture awareness campaigns, the "Wedi" System for labor dispute settlement, the "Improving Contractual Relationship" initiative, and other initiatives designed to enhance the work environment and protect the rights of all parties in contractual relationships.

The Kingdom has enacted laws and legislation to ensure the rights of resident workers and applies regulatory mechanisms to improve workers' conditions. These include requiring employers in the private sector to provide health insurance for their employees. Among the decisions, initiatives, and programs ensuring the rights of resident workers is their entitlement to breaks during working hours, which should not exceed eight hours daily or forty-eight hours weekly. This also includes annual leaves, family or study-related leaves, sick leaves, and additional leaves for female workers related to pregnancy, childbirth, and family care. The Labor Law emphasizes ensuring workers' dignity and treating them respectfully. It prohibits forced labor, wage withholding, or any deductions from their pay. The law also grants workers the right to leave their jobs without notifying or obtaining the employer's consent with full preservation of their rights in certain circumstances.

The ministry has issued ministerial decisions to protect expat workers and has implemented additional measures to prevent exploitation while safeguarding their rights and dignity. These include a ban on all forms of human trafficking, such as selling visas, charging expat workers for employment, or issuing fraudulent visas. Violators face penalties, including a five-year suspension of recruitment activities and a permanent ban for repeat violations. Since 2014, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has been enforcing a Council of Ministers' resolution prohibiting workers from working in exposed outdoor jobs under direct sunlight between 12:00 PM and 3:00 PM from mid-June to mid-September. Employers who violate this regulation face a fine of SAR3,000 for each worker involved.