Saudi Gazette report

MAKKAH — According to statistics made available by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, the Makkah province topped all other regions of the Kingdom in the number of violations against employment regulations, the Makkah newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Quoting officials from the ministry, the daily said Makkah topped not only in violations of Saudization of work overall but also in feminizing jobs in lingerie and women's accessory stores in the third phase of the program.

According to the ministry, there were 1,905 violations detected in Makkah in 35 days since the third phase of the job nationalization and feminization of the women lingerie and accessory shops was launched.

It said as many as 5,919 violations of the two decisions were found all over the Kingdom at a rate of 170 violations every day.

The largest number of inspection visits was carried out in Riyadh. The city witnessed 4,286 visits out of a total of 29,333 inspection tours conducted by the ministry in collaboration with a number of other government departments in all towns and cities of the Kingdom.

Khaled Aba Al-Khail, the ministry's spokesman, said there were 1,376 violations of job nationalization while the number of violations against feminization of work in the lingerie shops was 3,723.

He said 820 other miscellaneous violations. He added that 5,325 warnings were issued during the period.

Aba Al-Khail said the inspection tours resulted in 21,531 establishments announcing their commitment to the ministry's decisions aimed at Saudizing and feminizing work in lingerie shops.

The third phase of the feminization of work in women's accessory shops was launched in October. It will cover all shops selling products for women including lingerie, perfumes, shoes, bags, stockings, ready-made clothes and others.