Riyadh, may 14: Saudi Arabia has ruled out extension of the three-month grace period that will end on July 3 for expatriate workers to get their work and residency papers corrected before the enforcement of the Nitaqat' Saudisation scheme begins.
At a meeting of heads of foreign missions and labour counsellors at embassies called by the Saudi Labour Ministry at Riyadh on Saturday night, Ministry officials said it was impossible to extend the three-month grace period, Saudi media reported.
The meeting was attended by senior diplomats especially from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines, which are the largest labour exporters to Saudi Arabia.
The huge majority of illegal expats are from these countries. The diplomats had complained that the grace period was too short but the Labour Ministry ruled out any extension. Deputy Labour Minister Moufarrej bin Saad Al-Hagbani also warned that after the grace period ended illegal workers would be slapped with a two-year jail term and 1,00,000 Saudi riyal in penalty.
Minister to visit Saudi Arabia
Non-Resident Keralite Affairs Minister K.C. Joseph will visit Saudi Arabia soon to assist expatriate workers to take advantage of the amnesty scheme announced by the kingdom.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Mr. Joseph told a meeting of editors here on Monday that the Saudi Arabian government had accepted all the requests made to it by the State government.
Only about 3,000 workers from the State had registered with the embassy for repatriation. This could be due to their ignorance about the opportunity available to them.
Mr. Joseph would visit Jeddah, Riyad and Dammam and interact with Malayali organisations so that Malayali workers in the kingdom could be informed about the window of opportunity available to them, Mr. Chandy said.
The Chief Minister, who convened the meeting with editors to discuss the 'Vision 2030 Perspective Plan' being prepared by the government, said the draft of the plan would be published on the government website by month-end and finalised by June end.
The government had done much to improve the State's transport, communication and industrial infrastructure over the last two years. Its focus would now be in healthcare.
411,000 Saudis employed in pvt sector since start of Nitaqat
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labor Ahmed Al-Humaidan said that the ministry was able to employ more than 411,000 Saudis in the private sector since the announcement of the Nitaqat program until the end of 2012.
“This number represents an increase of 85 percent on the total Saudi employees in the private sector,” Al-Humaidan said during a meeting held by the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce (Al- Sharqia Chamber) with officials of the Ministry of Labor and business sectors in the region.
He added that the unemployment rate in the second half of 2012 was 12.1 percent.
Al-Humaidan said: “Regulations have helped raise minimum salaries to more than SR3,000 for 180,000 Saudi employees”
Deputy Director General of the Human Resources Development Fund Dr. Abdulkarim Al-Nujaidi said that two out of every 10 Saudis are now employed in the private sector. “Female job-seekers make up to 85 percent of the total beneficiaries of Hafiz program,” he said.
Twenty-six percent of registered in Hafiz are graduated females, while five percent are graduated males, he said, adding that 75 percent of women prefer to work in the education field, while 50 percent of men would prefer working in the public sector.
Director General of follow-up in the General Organization for Social Insurance Satam Al-Harbi said the lack of commitment by some employers to honor the minimum wage resulted in the discovery of 171,882 Saudis being paid SR1,500 per month.
“This has resulted in affecting the compensation owed to employees who have claimed for their entitlements,” he said.
“The accurate registration of workers' data, wages in addition to regular repayments, ensures realistic and accurate compensation,” Al-Harbi concluded.
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