Smart Move→

Abdul Rahman al-Rashed praises the latest series of decisions taken by the Saudi government to deal with illegal foreign workers:

On one hand, the sudden announcement of the decision to suspend deportation and grant foreigners a chance to correct their situation is an act of humane justice as well as a legal necessity. Most of these foreigners came to Saudi Arabia to work, and the country continuously needs their services. Thus, the need for them is certain as their activity has been ongoing despite its illegality.

On another hand, deportation is not an easy solution. In order to find illegal residents and deport them, the government's current capabilities may not be enough unless the government decides to use the assistance of the entire armed forces. This task will pressure the state's different apparatuses. We are talking about arresting millions of people, checking their residencies, gathering them and keeping them in camps bigger than the Syrian refugees’ camps!

Carrots and Sticks→

Hundreds of thousands of Haj and Umrah overstayers who arrived in Saudi Arabia before July 3, 2008, can work as domestic workers or for private companies as part of wide-ranging concessions announced yesterday by the ministries of Labor and Interior.

The concessions are perhaps the most far-reaching changes in the Kingdom’s labor law history that will now include allowing illegal workers to leave the country during the grace period without paying penalties. In addition, Huroob (runaway workers) will be allowed to return to their current sponsors or transfer to another.

The joint statement by MOL and MOI shows that the government is serious about the crackdown on illegal foreign workers in the country, but at the same time offers pathways for those workers and local businesses to deal with the issue during the grace period.

Photo: Glowing Fakeih

Saudi Labor Minister Adel Fakeih seen here speaking during the annual Ministry of Labor event held at King Fahad Cultural Center in Riyadh on Thursday night. Fakeih has come under heavy criticism for his enforcement of Saudization policies aiming to provide young Saudis with more jobs in the private sector, an effort to combat the high unemployment rate which reached 12 percent according to government statistics.

In Defense of Fakeih→

Saudi Labor Minister Adel Fakeih has come under heavy criticism for his recent policies like increasing visa fees for foreign workers and the crackdown on illegals. Asharq al-Awsat columnist Hussein Shobokshi comes to his defense:

Adel Fakeih, the minister of labor, endured harsh insults and criticism by ill-wishers who would never dare to express themselves in public. Despite this, he always made tough-yet-convincing arguments about the importance of finding solutions and the necessity for everyone, not just the private sector, to contribute. For him, there lies the real challenge. Therefore, everyone must take part to make this noble enterprise succeed. Most importantly, everyone must be accountable and liable to punishment if found guilty of negligence or corruption.

To succeed in this challenge is a matter of public interest. Failure will have risky consequences for everyone. It is true that the Saudi minister of labor has competently accomplished a task that is both unpleasant and uneasy; however, his accomplishment will definitely go down in history. Therefore, he deserves our respect and appreciation.

Imagine Saudi Arabia Without Foreign Labor→

Tackling unemployment among Saudi citizens was the main justification for the recent crackdown on illegal foreign workers, but will it really solve the problem? Somayya Jabarti dares you to imagine Saudi Arabia without expats:

In the case of Saudi unemployment, the scapegoat has been (drum rolling)...of course “guest workers” — whether they are illegally here or, legally here but illegally working. The solution: detain them and/or deport them. Then Saudi unemployment will be resolved and all will be happily ever working again. 

Whom are we kidding? We can’t be serious, though the situation utterly is, can we?  

Can we — and have we ever bothered to imagine our country without its guest workers? As it is wrong to assume that we have all been blessed with an imagination, perhaps all guest workers should indulge us and for 24 hours just totally stop working. Period. Why not experience an expat-less Saudi Arabia?

Saudi King Orders Grace Period for Illegal Foreign Workers

Foreign workers violating labor and residency laws will get three months to rectify their situation or face deportation, the official Saudi Press Agency said today.

“King Abdullah has ordered the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labor to give workers in violation of labor and residency regulations in the Kingdom a chance to rectify their situation during a period of three months maximum,” SPA reported in a brief statement.

Saudi Arabia has begun in recent weeks a camping to crack down on illegal workers, part of a push to create more jobs for its citizens. Local media reported that inspectors have raided many places around the country where they suspect illegal workers are employed.

‘Personally Envision’→

Despite facing many hurdles in allowing more Saudi women to work in retail jobs, the government keeps pushing in that direction. The latest step is a directive by the Ministry of Labor stating that abaya, the long black cloak women traditionally wear, and nightgown boutiques in the Kingdom must fully staff female employees by June 10, according to Arab News. The newspaper spoke with Fahd al-Tukhaifi, assistant undersecretary of development at the ministry, about the decision:

Commenting on the fact that most of such shops are managed or owned by men, he said, “I personally envision three main requirements to avoid problems in this regard. First, the employer must veil or somehow conceal the interior of the shop if women are working inside. Men should be prohibited from entering these shops with the exception of family sections. The second requirement is that the employer should not under any circumstances employ men and women jointly in the same department.” He added that there should be no fewer than three female employees working the same shift.

The third condition, according to Al-Tukhaifi, stipulates that men working in the same shop should refrain from entering the female department.

“Men visiting the mall or shopping are to be prohibited from entering these shops, unless in the company of their families,” he said.

He personally envisions?

These remarks by the Labor Ministry official can probably explain why the push for women employment in the private sector has been such a mess. Instead of speaking about well thought out plans to implement these changes in the job market, this official is offering his personal opinion on how things should be done. Labor Minister Adel Fakeih is said to be a man who believes in studies and numbers, but such statements by his subordinates undermine his efforts in the uphill battle of Saudization and tackling unemployment.

Saudi Women to Be Allowed to Work in Pharmacies→

Female pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will be soon allowed to work at commercial pharmacies, according to statements made by the Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih. The statements were widely reported by local media, but the the prize for the worst headline goes to Saudi Gazette who chose a lame pun to top their story: “Saudi women to man pharmacies soon, says Fakieh”. While women have always worked in hospital pharmacies, employment in commercial pharmacies have been limited to men. The move to allow women to work in pharmacies is part of MOL’s plan to lower the high unemployment rate among Saudi women. MOL began in January 2011 restricting work in a number of retail jobs to women, and it seems that the healthcare sector, largely dominated by foreign workers, might be the next target for the Saudization policy.

Gender Segregation at Colleges Limits Women’s Access to the Job Market→

Writing in Arab News, columnist Mohammed al-Saif implicitly calls on the government to end gender segregation in higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia:

It is no secret that gender segregation in education has been the status quo in Saudi Arabia since public education for females was officially introduced in the early 1960’s. Interestingly, the Kingdom is the only Muslim country in the world that still does not have coed schooling in all education levels, from primary school to university.

However, it could become the logically subsequent phase to the current mixed-gender working environment, and this could represent a new social challenge to its mostly conservative society.

Although recent statistics show that women constitute 58 percent of higher education graduates in Saudi Arabia, their educational background still does not guarantee them a job after graduation.

The current education structure limits women’s access to the labor market through restrictions on certain areas of study and access to a wider scope of jobs, such as engineering, media, and architecture. In addition to that, it is costing the country double the budget as it is paying twice for education facilities Kingdomwide.

It is worth noting, however, that the gender mixing at the workplace is still facing a staunch resistance by the conservatives who recently forced the Labor Ministry to erect walls to segregate men from women at retail stores.

The Great Wall of Segregation

The government decision to segregate women and men employees at retail outlets is drawing mixed reaction, Arab News reported.

“It is a totally bad idea to have a wall built to separate both sexes in shops,” Dalal A. Kaaki, director of women business center at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told the newspaper. “The harassment can happen anyway when a man comes to a saleswoman with his family.” But Aisha Natto, member of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, defended the decision to erect a partition between men and women. “It is not a wall,” she said. “It is up to the ceiling. So for those who understood it as a wall, it’s clearly not a wall but just a partition.”

Is a 160-cm high partition a wall or not? It seems we can’t even agree what is a wall anymore. Like Hamoud Abu Talib, I really would like to know how did the government reach the 160cm number. Did they conduct a study to measure the average hight of Saudi citizens and concluded that this is what is needed to separate men from women? Abu Talib writes:

On one hand, I am happy that the Hai’a and the ministry have agreed that women can work even if it means they have to be surrounded by these 160-cm separation walls. On the other hand, however, I cannot help but express astonishment at the agreement for which there is no justification whatsoever.

Women’s employment is a decision that the Council of Ministers approved and it must be implemented. This means that no further agreements or approvals are needed. It is true that we have finally allowed our women to work. It is equally true that our consent has been wrapped in several impossible conditions that have nothing to do with women in the workplace.

What if a female employee is taller than the wall? Do we bring in specialist doctors to shorten her? I really want to know: Why 160 cm?

Unemployment Threat to National Security, Saudi Labor Minister Says→

Saudi Labor Minister Adel Fakeih in statement:

It is a threat to national security that hundred of thousands of Saudi job seekers remain unemployed when they see business owners making billions of riyals thanks to the government huge budget and the strong economical position of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Government Orders Separation of Male and Female Salespeople in Retail Stores

Retail stores that employ women must install a partition to separate them from their male colleagues according to a new memorandum of understanding signed by the Ministry of Labor and the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Sunday. The partition should be at least 160cm high and stores have only 30 days to comply with the new regulations or risk punishment, SPA said.

The Saudi Ministry of Labor has pushed in recent years to encourage more women to join the workforce by forcing retail stores to employ female salespeople for certain items like lingerie and cosmetics. This decision has faced strong resistance from religious conservatives who warn that the mixing of genders at the workplace would lead to the Westernization of society. After a group of clerics visited MOL last December to protest the employment of women, CPVPV chief Abdul-Latif Al Alsheikh criticized the Ministry for failing to maintain a “good clean environment” for women working at retail stores.

This public criticism by the CPVPV chief has probably prompted MOL to seek a compromise in order to continue implementing their policy that aims to employ more women, especially with the unemployment rate among Saudi women reaching 36 percent according to the latest number released by the Central Department of Statistics and Information.

But gender segregation remains a contentious issue in the conservative kingdom which practices a strict interpretation of Islam. Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih admitted last year that resistance by religious conservatives is making it difficult for his ministry to implement its women employment policy, but he denied allegations of Westernizing society. “We want to open a whole new world for women, and at the same time will be in tune with our culture with how we’d like our families to continue to be,” he told the Washington Post last November. “We don’t want necessarily to copy a Western lifestyle.”

No Easy Answers for Saudi Unemployment Problem→

Despite the rapid economic growth in Saudi Arabia in recent years, the government has failed to keep the unemployment rate down. Actually, recent stats show that the employment rate is rising. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg tries to explain:

What happened since 2009? Economists are fond of saying that rising tide lifts all boats. According to this theory, the invisible hand of economics would automatically translate high rates of economic growth into higher employment levels. But we just saw that that we have had the opposite: Higher rates of economic growth coincided with high rates of unemployment.

It seems that the proverbial invisible hand has lost its touch in our case. Many Saudis believe that there are other forces that have prevented it from doing its magical work. First, laissez faire labor policies have ensured that whatever jobs are created are claimed by non-nationals, easily brought in from neighboring countries. Second, universities and technical schools are behind the times in providing the kind of skilled and semi-skilled labor that the new Saudi economy requires. Third, rising expectations have priced Saudis out of the labor market, as employers choose cheaper imported labor. Fourth, many Saudis prefer to work in government jobs and would rather wait for a civil service job than accept low-paying work in the private sector.

Sponsorship System Stays→

Contrary to earlier reports that Saudi Arabia is planning to abolish the sponsorship system for migrant workers, a senior official at the Ministry of Labor denied that such plans exist:

“There is no intention of canceling the sponsorship system,” the official said denying reports in business circles that the government was considering abolishing the system.

“Abolishing the kafeel system for foreign manpower will create chaos in the labor market,” the ministry official was quoted by a local daily as saying.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ministry had discussed three options for boosting the process of Saudization including unification of wages, canceling the sponsorship system and raising the costs of employing foreign manpower.

“The ministry dismissed the first two ideas and adopted the third one,” he said.

As columnist Sultan al-Amer noted, it is hard to fix the labor market problems as long as the sponsorship system is still in place because it gives immense power to employers over employees.

Minimum Wage for Saudis in Private Sector→

The Labor Ministry said yesterday that it would implement the new minimum salary system on Feb. 2 in order encourage private firms to increase salaries for Saudi workers.

Under the new system a Saudi worker should be paid a salary of not less than SR3,000 to consider him/her as a full Saudi worker in the Nitaqat Saudization program.

Saudis receiving SR 1,500 are viewed as “half workers” while those receiving less than that amount are not included at all when calculating their firms’ Saudization percentage.

Conservatives Repeat Themselves→

Ali al-Ghamdi:

Those who today object to women working and who consider that those who permit them to do so should die of cancer are the same men who forbade installing television dishes a decade ago but are now competing with each other to appear on — both paid and free – satellite channels. Of course, while formerly they prayed against those who permitted such dishes, they now pray for the forgiveness and mercy of the same people!

The same thing happened in the case of girls’ education more than 50 years ago. A large number of clerics forbade the opening of schools for girls. In some regions, they sent delegations to the late King Faisal asking him not to give permission for such schools in their parts of the country. But King Faisal, who was determined in his position, settled the matter by saying that the government would open schools but would not force anyone to send his daughter to them.

Saudi Unemployment Rate Above 12 Percent, CDSI Says

The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia has reached 12.1 percent in 2012, according to new numbers published by the Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI). The stats show that there are 602,853 Saudi nationals who are unemployed, 243,983 of them are men. But the unemployment rate is far higher among females (36 percent) than males (6.1 percent). CDSI says 73.3 percent of unemployed women have a college degree.

The Saudi government has worked in recent years to tackle the problem of rising unemployment by encouraging more women to join the workforce. They have limited work in some retail jobs to women and announced plans to lift the ban on female lawyers arguing cases in courtrooms. These moves were faced with resistance from religious conservatives who accuse the Minister of Labor of pushing a liberal agenda aiming to “Westernize” society through gender mixing at the workplace. Hundreds of clerics have visited the Ministry headquarters in Riyadh during recent weeks to protest women employment policies implemented by Fakieh.

“We want to open a whole new world for women, and at the same time will be in tune with our culture with how we’d like our families to continue to be,” he told the Washington Post last November. “We don’t want necessarily to copy a Western lifestyle.”

The government started last year to give unemployment benefits for those looking for work under a program called “Hafiz.” They have also tried to make jobs at the private sector, currently dominated by foreign workers, more attractive to Saudi nationals by decreasing work hours and increasing the minimum wage.

More controversially, MOL decided to fine firms with too many foreign workers, doubled the annual fees of work permits for companies who have less than 50 percent Saudization rate to SR 2,400. This resulted in a backlash from business owners who complained that the increase would hurt their interests badly. Economists are divided over the effect of this step as some of them see it necessary to push the Saudization efforts while others say it would lead to a rise in prices of consumer goods and raise the cost of government project contracts.

A recent report by Riyad Capital suggested that the work permit cost increase should be benign even in businesses with a high percentage of foreign workers. Dairy giant Almarai for example had 4,800 Saudi staff out of a total 15,000 headcount in 2011. “We estimate an increase in labor cost of about SR 6.5 million, or +0.5 percent,” Riyad Capital said.

Despite objections by some business owners, MOL is adamant that they will not reconsider the levy on foreign workers. MOL spokesman Hattab Al-Anazi said in a statement last month that “the ministry will not go back on its implementation of the Council of Ministers’ decision No. 353 concerning the higher fees on expatriate laborers when their number exceeds Saudi workers,”

Buying the Labor Ministry Argument→

Ever since the government announced its decision to hike visa fees for foreign workers, Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh has been on the defensive trying to explain the motives and goals of his policy. However, Fakieh has recently decided to launch a charm offensive, appearing on television and inviting bloggers and tweeps to dinner parties at five star hotels. Saad Al Dosary was invited to a dinner hosted by the ministry in Jeddah, and he came out convinced because “it’s hard to argue with numbers”:

There are 7 million non-Saudi workers making a living here, while there are 2 millions Saudis looking for a job. The math is simple. Now, having said that, we could say the ministry’s strategy is based on two main pillars: The first, to give Saudis, males and females, a fair chance to compete over available jobs in the market. The second is to fix and reform the dysfunctional labor market. The decision to increase the fees is only one of many decisions and initiatives the ministry is adapting to amend the stale labor market.

Saudi Addiction to Cheap Foreign Labor→

Jamal Khashoggi on the campaign against Saudi Labor Minister Adel Fakieh:

There are many reasons behind the conservative current’s “hatred” towards Adel Fakieh even if at some point, it is overlapping with some business reasons; they are obsessed with fighting decisions that allow women to work, and they want to limit the work of women in women’s necessities stores. The law has included so far women's lingerie stores so it would be ratified. Nevertheless, the religious current knows well that “women’s necessities” can include dozens of other stores. This is a strategic alliance with the retail dealers who prefer to hire a foreign “male” who arranges the ladies’ lingerie, in obvious opposition with the conservative nature of Saudi society: for Saudi merchant, the foreign male sales person is less costly than Saudi woman who needs to be employed, and work with a double salary and who would be working for limited hours. The Saudi female worker will need an insurance coverage in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Labor: all these requirements are additional costs that businessmen prefer to avoid! Economics and accounting rules to increase the profits and minimize losses, is the engine for those businessmen, and not the national morals and the supreme national interest that the Minister of Labor is working on. As for the religious current, the important thing is that this foreign “male” will guarantee that women will not work in public.

The religious tide does not care about Adel Fakieh’s numbers, such as the fact that 85 percent of those registered in the “incentive” program that registers the unemployed are two million Saudi women. This is a clear message to the religious current stating that their festering speech that refuses the women's work idea and discouraging women has failed. There are 1.7 million Saudi females who wish to work: many of them prefer to work as teachers, while others want to work under the terms of the clergy, i.e. without interacting with the opposite sex. The economy is directing the people and not the heartless preaching. Half of the women are willing to work in the retail sector for example, and that is strongly opposed by religious men: the need for job and income are what motivate women and put pressure on the State that is represented by the Ministry of Labor. These women and 360 thousand of young Saudis, where most of them did not finish the secondary education, constitute 10 percent of the Saudi population.

Saudi Clerics To Labor Minister: Stop Women Employment Or You Will Get Cancer

Clerics who oppose gender mixing at the workplace have given an ultimatum to Saudi Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh: he has one month to roll back on the policy allowing women to work in retail, or they will pray to God to give him cancer.

Local media reported that more than 200 clerics from around the Kingdom had come to Riyadh and held a meeting Tuesday afternoon at the Ministry with Fakieh to complain about gender mixing in retail stores, accusing him of challenging religious authorities in the country like the Council of Senior Ulema.

“Stop women employment or we will pray against you like we have done with the previous Labor Minister,” a cleric named Abdulrahman Aba-Nemai reportedly told Fakieh. The cleric was referring to the late Ghazi al-Gosaibi who passed away in August 2010 and had to face similar opposition from conservatives over women employment. A video uploaded to YouTube showed some attendees cheer with the sounds of takbeer as Aba-Nemai talked to Fakieh.

Defending the policy, Fakieh said women have worked in sales since the days of the Prophet and that there is nothing in Islam forbidding such work. “Women in our country have worked in sales before, and in some regions they still do,” he said. “But now, foreign men are selling lingerie to our women. No jealous man would accept this.” Fakieh also rejected the accusation that his ministry is pushing an agenda to “westernize” society through the employment of women and refused to discuss the motives behind his policy. “Only God knows about motives, and I won’t say more on this,” he told the clerics.

The Saudi government have worked to encourage more women to join the workforce as part of its plans to tackle the high unemployment rate which they officially put at 10.5. The Minister told local media last October that more than 80 percent of the 1.5 million unemployed Saudi nationals looking for work are women.

This is the second visit in two weeks by the clerics to the Ministry of Labor to protest women employment. When the clerics visited the Ministry last week Fakieh only met with them briefly because they showed up without appointment and promised to meet them again. Describing yesterday’s meeting, al-Hayat said Fakieh had to face a “heated verbal pelting” by the clerics. “We don’t want solutions for women employment,” they told him. “We just want it stopped.”

Fakieh was defiant and told the clerics they have the right to offer advice and if he, as a government officla, decided not not to take their advice then they are free to go the courts and sue the Ministry.

“Some of you have already gone to the courts to oppose the Ministry of Labor’s decision,” he said. “If the courts ruled against the decision, we will cancel it.”